The mechanical behavior of natural sites is largely guided by vibrations of the Earth and environmental exposure, but damage is rarely assessed, except empirically. Rock pillars , such as the Abraham's pillar above the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave, or the Tete Noire pillar overhanging the road to the Trient village (Wallis) represent shining example of fragility that would benefit from monitoring....
Landslides are difficult to predict and can therefore be a serious threat to populations and infrastructures. Understanding landslide processes and their precursor parameters is an important challenge for scientists and for public managers. Landslide monitoring is essential for determining the hazard associated with the unstable slopes. Computing seismic velocity changes from ambient seismic...
Rock fracturing plays a key role in shaping mountain landscapes and natural hazards. Weathering agents, such as daily thermal variations, rain and frost, are among the main triggers of the weathering and fracturing process. However, the mechanisms involved are not well quantified, and questions remain about stress variations in natural cliffs.
To better quantify the effect of thermal...
Ground response (GR) refers to the ability of a field site to naturally amplify and damp seismic wavefield components under linear and/or nonlinear conditions. While seismic waves are typically the main triggers of GR, explosions and strong acoustic waves can also induce it through air-to-ground coupling. As both explosive sources and unconsolidated near-surface materials are common to find in...
