Boaters Capture Video Of Massive Rockfall On Powell; Warm Creek Bay (South End)

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Memorial Day boaters captured the scene on video as a massive rockfall crashed into the waters of Lake Powell. The dramatic rockslide happened on the Utah side of the lake – the second largest reservoir in the country – where water levels have continued to plunge due to the unrelenting drought conditions gripping much of the West.

Mila Carter, who shot the video, told CNN she was heading to Antelope Point Marina with her husband, Steve Carter, when they noticed rocks and sand falling off the cliff near the entrance of Warm Creek. They stopped the boat and started taking pictures and a video that captured the event unfolding.

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Tyler Knudsen, a senior geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, said it’s difficult to say this early whether the Memorial Day rockfall is linked to the ongoing drought, since rockslides can be triggered by several other external factors – including rainfall, earthquakes, and daily temperature fluctuations. Even the wave action from boats or the wind, he said, can help slowly erode slopes and potentially trigger rockfalls.

“We see increased rockfalls during intense precipitation events and earthquakes, but apparently none of those conditions existed at the time of the rockfall in the video, so its trigger remains unknown,” Knudsen told CNN. “Water-level decline certainly could have been the trigger, but, again, we can’t say for sure at this point.”

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/us/lake-powell-rockslide-drought-climate/index.html