Dynamic Earth(cache) EarthCache

The Gschliefgraben is an east-to-west trending valley with an area of 3,2 km² and a length of 3 km. It is situated close to the shores of lake Traunsee in Upper Austria some 8 km south of Gmunden. The valley hosts a big landslide system that has been a very active area during the past centuries. In the heart of the Northern Calcareous Alps with mainly limestone and dolomite Gschliefgraben is located on a tectonic border between Rhenodanubian Flysch and Ultrahelvetics where the specific mixture of impermeable and permeable rock created a fateful basis for landslides.

The inhabitants of the area have been living next to the landslides for a long time but only recently the slides became a major threat for buildings and local roads, water-, electricity- and telecommunication lines.

Scientists believe that a rock fall in 2006 finally triggered the last major landslide which started a flow amounting about 3.8 million m³ of accumulated solids in late November 2007. More than 50 buildings were threatened by the moving masses and many inhabitants had to be evacuated. After several months the rescue teams managed to stop the landslides by draining the upper part of the valley and excavation work all over the area. Some 12 million Euro have been spent for rescue work and future prevention; an early warning system is also under development.

To log this cache please walk as close as you can get to the cache coordinates and take a picture of the area with lake Traunsee and you and/or your GPS and send it to our profile email:

• Measure the shortest distance from the header coordinates to the shoreline of lake Traunsee: 150m, 300m or 500m and calculate how many days it would have taken the landslide to reach the lake from this point: 15d, 30d or 60d (hint: use the fastest speed of the 2007 landslide in meters per day)?

• Please upload your picture/or one of your GPS to the log as well.