Short Communication: Monitoring rockfalls with the Raspberry Shake

Abstract

Abstract. We evaluate the performance of the low-cost seismic sensor Raspberry Shake to identify and monitor rockfall activity in alpine environments. The test area is a slope adjacent to the Great Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps, i.e. the Moosfluh deep-seated instability, which has recently undergone a critical acceleration phase. A local seismic network composed of three Raspberry Shake was deployed starting from May 2017 in order to record rockfall activity and its relation with the progressive rock-slope degradation potentially leading to a large rock-slope failure. Here we present a first assessment of the seismic data acquired from our network after a monitoring period of 1 year. We show that our network performed well during the whole duration of the experiment, including the winter period in severe alpine conditions, and that the seismic data acquired allowed us to clearly discriminate between rockfalls and other events. This work also provides general information on the potential use of such low-cost sensors in environmental seismology.

Current glacier recession causes significant rockfall increase: the immediate paraglacial response of deglaciating cirque walls

“…the dramatic glacier retreat observed over the past few decades -has so far only marginally been addressed. In the Alps, singular, high-magnitude events were examined in the Mont Blanc Massif, France (Deline et al, 2008), at the Piz Kesch, Switzerland (Phillips et al, 2017), and adjacent to the Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland (Manconi et al, 2018), and have at least partially been attributed to current glacier melting. Quantitative studies of lower-magnitude paraglacial rockfalls are rare and include a detailed topographic study of rock and ice avalanches in the Monte Rosa east face, Italy (L. , a 4-year time series on a paragneiss ridge at the Gemsstock ski area, Switzerland (Kenner et al, 2011), a 2-year monitoring from the Tour Ronde east face, France (Rabatel et al, 2008), and slope stability surveys from the surroundings of the Cosmiques Hut, France (Ravanel et al, 2013).…”

Current glacier recession causes significant rockfall increase: The immediate paraglacial response of deglaciating cirque walls

“…the dramatic glacier retreat observed over the past few decadeshas so far only marginally been addressed. In the Alps, singular, high-magnitude events were examined in the Mont Blanc Massif, France , 70 at the Piz Kesch, Switzerland (Phillips et al, 2017) and adjacent to the Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland (Manconi et al, 2018) and have at least partially been attributed to current glacier melting. Quantitative studies of lower magnitude paraglacial rockfalls are rare and include a detailed topographic study of rock and ice avalanches in the Monte Rosa east-face, Italy (Fischer et al 2011b), a four-year time series on a paragneiss ridge at the Gemsstock ski area, Switzerland (Kenner et al, 2011), a twoyear monitoring from the Tour Ronde east-face, France (Rabatel et al, 2008), and slope stability surveys from the surroundings 75 of the Refuge des Cosmiques, France (Ravanel et al, 2013).…”

Assessing Raspberry Shake and Boom Sensors for Recording African Elephant Acoustic Vocalizations

“…So far, two studies have evaluated the performances of the above sensors for environmental seismology monitoring. Raspberry Shake 1Ds were successful in recording and discriminating rockfall activity above a glacier in the Swiss Alps, demonstrating their potential for use in scientific investigations (Manconi et al, 2018). Raspberry Shake sensors were also used to estimate local magnitudes for earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma, USA, and were found to be suitable for the characterization of local and regional seismicity (Anthony et al, 2019).…”