Amazing Footage of Debris Flow in Illgraben

Pierre Zufferey spent two years trying to capture the mud flow in Illgraben. In this clip, his patience finally pays off. The violent mud flow is the result of the mud that makes up the Illhorn mountain. It breaks apart, causing the debris to flow.

Pierre Zufferey via Storyful

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[davidedgar]

It's not liquidification, the water velocity with the amount of flow creates a cement density fluid that can carry huge multi ton boulders along with it. The density of the fluid "lightens" the boulders, each rock and boulder can then loosen other rocks and boulders, creating an even more dense fluid and the added weight of said fluid. This accumulation of flow density, velocity, and mass, can have serious power. I've experienced this in Arizona and the Coachella valley in California. I've witnessed 30 - 40 foot gouges into the earth with some amazing sized boulders strewn along the way.
Liquidification requires the soil to be very porous, this is desert hard pan or caliche soil. Very hard, almost concrete like, soil. It is almost impervious to water and also provides a harder surface for the flow to gain acceleration.
I love that you provided a video of this phenomenon, many people throughout the world never see. This may save some lives 👍

[jdtown]

The force it takes to move all those boulders must be freaking immense. Wow.

[BeaglefreilaufKalkar]

According to Wikipedia (in German)
"The usually small inconspicuous Illbach quickly swells during intense precipitation caused by showers, thunderstorms or by the combination of meltwater and rain and carries a lot of debris due to the continuous intensive weathering of the rock material. These debris flows occur several times a year and carry the material into the Rhone. During precipitation, this leads to the clouding of the Rhone until it flows into Lake Geneva.

The stream has thus cut 1, 500 meters into the rock and with the material has piled up a mighty debris cone in the valley of the Rhone. The river was thus pushed along a length of 5 kilometers to the opposite mountain foot. The debris cone is heaped up to 200 meters high above the valley floor. The eastern part of the debris cone is farmed with meadows and fields, while the western part supports the upper part of the Pfyn forest. The lower part, on the other hand, continues to be characterized by the regular debris flows, some of whose material is washed here by the Rhone all the way to Sierre.
Due to the strong erosion, there is no permanent vegetation in the Illgraben."

Here some more info
Although only in French and German
The Gorge is between 2 mountains, each a different kind of rock, but both very prone to erosion. The material that comes loose from those mountains amplifies the effects of the mudslides. As in the Wikipedia piece, the amount of material that has come down is huge.

[jstolics]

Dang, those are some massive boulders being tossed like nothing 😳

[HardNorthOutdoors]

wow, seeing those boulders just getting pushed like scary

[evilsharkey]

Imagine how much faster that would be flowing if it wasn’t spending so much energy flipping those boulders in the front.

[Fastedstate]

That sounded like a moving earthquake coupled with thunder. Great footage.

[TravelWithCesarin]

At first I was like "That doesnt look that bad.." then the boulders came, and the whole thing looked way bigger... and I'm like "well shit.."

[hadrianbuiltawall]

Humanity - with enough sweat and toil, we can move mountains.
Mother nature - I move mountains when I pee.

[seanfulk]

That's amazing to see. Those are some really big boulders in there wow

Wow, a YouTube video that actually delivers what is promised!

[drAgonflysix]

That is pure madness, moving massive boulders like that that is remarkable.

[yuorjeks]

Those rocks' weight gotta be tons! Wow! The energy and force this water has is incredible! Amazing!

[chandarussell]

Water is incredibly powerful as evidenced by those huge boulders rolling downriver.

[tweet]

I like that boulder, that's a nice boulder... 🐺

[eugenemay]

I can only imagine what that really felt like being there recording this

[bufera]

Great video, spetactular debris flow!!

[majorwedgie]

I had no idea that boulders could float!

[Marc_donkey]

Pure power of mother nature, look at those boulders move , they are going at a pretty good speed

[sgtkah]

Amazing power of the water to move boulders that huge!