Humans seem to have a natural propensity to challenge Mother Nature, to stare her down as she hurls wind, water, fire and even rocks our way. Here, a motorist takes chances crossing a stretch of road as a landslide is underway on a dirt road between Govindghat and Rishikesh in India.
If you watch closely, you'll see a few rocks hit the car. The video was uploaded to YouTube June 18, 2011. We ran across it via Dave Petley's AGU "landslide" blog.
Many landslides are triggered when intense rainfall or snowmelt loosens steep, debris-laden slopes. Scientists study small landslides in labs to get a better understanding of how the real ones work.
