The people living on the eastern bank of the Traunsee (map on following page) in Austria are able to observe geology in motion these days. About one million tons of soil and rock are moving in a slow landslide toward the lake, throwing over trees (picture at left) and threatening to take parts of a village with them. More… 

For days, cracks have been occurring in the ground.  The local disaster management agency is doing its best to evacuate residents (sixty houses so far), while geologists are trying to explain the phenomenon.  In their opinion, the reason for the movement lies in a local rift, which separates the harder limestone alps from the softer shale zones near the lake.  Erosion and weathering have filled the rift with water, which now pushes the softer zone downhill into the lake (water is the culprit, big surprise).  The area being pushed measures approximately 1 kilometer by 80 meters. Some houses affected show cracks in the inch-range. It has been known for decades that slight movements in the area occur occasionally. However, nobody anticipated what is happening right now.

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• Schnabel Foundation Company
• Dave's Landslide Blog

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