A section of the canyon fell into the lake on Memorial Day. A large chunk of a canyon wall fell into the lake, releasing a cloud of dust and sending columns of water upward. Carter told Fox 13 that she and her family and friends were out for a boat ride on the lake when she spotted a few rocks falling off a cliff. She pulled out her phone just in time because they knew more was on the way. Carter said the rock slide was amazing. The video didn't do that big tidal wave justice, and I saw something like that for the first time. It was a big deal. The historically low water levels in Lake Powell have made it a site of extreme events recently. The lake stood at 3,532 feet above sea level as of Thursday. It went to a record low of 3,528.7 feet (1,073.7 meters) early last month. It is almost 75 feet lower than Memorial Day weekend in 2020 and 29 feet lower than this same weekend in 2011. The low numbers are the result of a one-two punch of the West's strained water system and its worst dry spell in 1,200 years. The extremely low water levels have rendered the lake almost unrecognizable in places, and officials have had to make difficult decisions to keep water levels high enough for the lake to keep generating electricity. No human remains have been found at Lake Powell, as they have at Lake Las Vegas.
It is possible that this rock slide is related to the dry spell. Rock slides can be triggered by a lot of different factors, from storms to earthquakes, but they can also be helped by water levels declining in a lake, as pressure changes when water falls and removes support from cliffs that may have been stabilizing
The Memorial Day collapse was caused by the saturation and drying of the water, according to a research geologist with the Arizona Geological Survey. It might have fallen over, but it might have taken more time because of the reservoir.
Cook said it was rare for humans to see a slide like the one Carter caught.
Cook said that there are probably a lot of things that are ready to go. We don't have a clue.
It is difficult to determine specific causes for any event, and officials have not released an official cause for the rock slide.
Tyler Knudsen, a senior geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, told CNN that the rockfall in the video was not caused by any of the conditions that were present at the time. We can't say for certain, but water-level decline could have been the cause. The creation of Lake Powell has led to elevated rockfall generation.
Is it possible that the dewatered cliffs are generating more rockfalls? It is possible according to Knudsen. It's difficult to link a particular rockfall to declining water levels, but it's likely that record low water levels are contributing to recent rockfalls.
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