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rock·fall | \ ˈräk-ˌfȯl 
\
\Definition of rockfall
: a mass of falling or fallen rocks
Examples of rockfall in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web At least eight additional people were injured in the rockfall, and were transported to local hospitals by helicopter, Reuters reported.
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Rachel Desantis, PEOPLE.com, "Rockfall in Austrian Gorge Popular with Hikers Kills at Least 3 People," 10 July 2020 Two women, a 50-year-old hiker from Hungary and a 21-year-old from the nearby Austrian city of Graz, were killed in the rockfall at Bärenschützklamm, Reuters reported.
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Rachel Desantis, PEOPLE.com, "Rockfall in Austrian Gorge Popular with Hikers Kills at Least 3 People," 10 July 2020 Bunker went missing in the area above where six climbers died in 2014 at Liberty Ridge, which is known for its steep cliffs, frequent avalanches and active rockfall, authorities said.
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Fox News, "Searches underway for 3 Mount Rainier hikers missing in separate incidents," 28 June 2020 To mitigate the rockfall, Inzeo explained that officials on Friday were, essentially, placing airbags into sections of the rocks and inflating them to push portions of loose rock off the cliffs.
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James Burky, The Denver Post, "Twin rockslides on I-70 leave skiers jammed in traffic, businesses feeling pinch during Thanksgiving week," 30 Nov. 2019 Denali Park Road has been repeatedly damaged by landslides and rockfall in recent years.
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Tess Williams, Anchorage Daily News, "Denali Park Road closed in effort to encourage Alaskans to stay home during coronavirus crisis," 15 Apr. 2020 The park estimated the rocks were between fist-sized and 12 inches in diameter with enough debris from the rockfall to fill the bed of a pickup truck.
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Hollie Silverman, CNN, "3 people were injured after a large piece of rock broke off a mountain and fell in Utah's Zion National Park," 27 Aug. 2019 Crews have been working between miles 108 and 110 the last few weeks as part of an emergency rockfall mitigation effort spurred by landslides in December, said department spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy.
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Tess Williams, Anchorage Daily News, "Up to 3 million pounds of rock will be blasted from a Seward Highway cliff Friday," 20 Mar. 2020 Rigaux started recording and captured video of the massive rockfall as entire swath of the cliff cascaded into the lake, raising a plume of water and dust.
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Ryan Prior, CNN, "A group of kayakers on Lake Superior narrowly missed a collapsing sandstone cliff," 15 Aug. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rockfall.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for rockfall
The first known use of rockfall was in 1901
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