Earlier this week , a storm spawned by the former Cyclone Gitaswept across New Zealand , damaging buildings , knocking out electrical energy , and creating floods . But along the Rakaia River , the storm touch off a bizarre natural phenomenon have it off as granular flow — essentially a raging river of rocks .
This incredible telecasting was captured byDonna Fieldas she was suffer alongside the Rakaia River in Canterbury , reportsNew Zealand ’s Stuff internet site . The brawny flow of tilt curve a swath through Double Hill Run Road , cutting off eight farm from a nearby township . “ It ’s an upshot that has become a regular happening for the farmers in the surface area , ” writes Stuff ’s Brad Flahive . Damn , no admiration the place is called “ Terribly Gulley . ”
Over at the Landslide Blog , geologist Dave Petleyoffers an explanationfor this freaky — and clearly grave — phenomenon :
This is a brilliant example of a coarse-grained flow . Whilst they appear to be very exotic , granular menses are quite commonand have been well - name in the literature . In centre the pebbles behave as atom , allowing behaviour that is kin to that of a fluid . Of naturally the density of the fluid is somewhat higher than that of a more familiar liquid , such as water , and the molecule are many sentence larger , but the river of tilt is still able to generate the sort of current structures that we see in water … I surmise that this one comprise atom that are of a comparatively even size — Simon Cox from GNS suggested to me that the material is believably greywacke . It may be that this uniformness dwell behind the unusual feature of this flow .
Greywacke is a dark , uncouth chunk of sandstone with some clay inside it , for those of you not intimate with the term [ raises script ] . New Zealand is particularly prostrate to corrosion , make believe the island state susceptible to this variety of raw phenomenon . Needless to say , if you ever see such a spectacle , avoid the temptation to jump-start in for a ride . You will most assuredly die a immediate , miserable demise .
[ Stuff , The Landslide Blog ]
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