Rock

So, today some melting glacier ice broke a huge chunk of rock off of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. It caused a 15 minute avalanche of stone, but no one was hurt.

My favorite little factoid from the article is this:

A 100-foot-high rock formation on the Eiger known as the "Madonna" collapsed earlier Thursday.

A rock formation that was considered a unique enough feature of the Eiger to have been named...collapsed. Usually, you have to wait millions of years to see the planet do this kind of remodeling. The destruction of a 100 foot tall geological landmark? That took part of a Thursday.

I love when stuff like this happens. Not because it's fun to watch big stuff blow up or crash, but because it's a great paradox. The planet is always changing in ways we can't see--rocks are always breaking off somewhere or building up someplace else--but this still feels like a once in a lifetime moment.

It's like standing in the middle of twelve lanes of speeding traffic, when all of a sudden a bright red Model T Ford putters past you. Technically, it's just another car--another example of what you're surrounded by. But it's special anyway.

And it caused a huge cloud of dust hundreds of feet high. How cool is that?