Research Status and Development Trend of the High-Altitude Extremely-Energetic Rockfalls

Abstract

High altitude rockfalls, as one of the common types of geological disasters in mountains, coasts, traffic corridors and opencast quarries, have the characteristics of wide distribution, sudden failure, concealment and severity of disaster, etc. In recent years, with frequent earthquakes and drastic climate change around the world, the high-altitude extremely-energetic rockfalls have increased significantly, causing serious loss of life and property. Recently, the identification and early warning technology, failure and transportation mechanism as well as disaster chain effects of high-altitude extremely-energetic rockfalls have become one of the research hotspots in the field of international geosciences. This paper summarizes the current main research achievements from the aspects of early identification of rockfalls, failure and transportation mechanism, comprehensive mitigation measures, and puts forward the scientific and technical problems that need to be solved urgently, such as damage identification method of rock bridges, dynamic monitoring technology, dynamic stability evaluation method, early warning model, transportation mechanism and comprehensive prevention and control technology. The solution of these problems will contribute to the comprehensive prevention and control of high-altitude extremely-energetic rockfalls.