This photo taken Thursday afternoon shows where a second slab of rock peeled away from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park/NPS

Editor's note: This updates with a second rockfall on Thursday, one injured.

For the second day in a row Thursday a massive slab of rock peeled from the face of El Capitan and fell to the floor of the Yosemite Valley. This rockfall, though larger than the one Wednesday that killed a British citizen, resulted in no fatalities but did injure one, Yosemite National Park officials said.

"The injured person was flown out of the park via air ambulance to receive medical care at an area hospital," park spokesman Scott Gediman said Thursday evening.

Geologists were assessing the size of the fall to estimate how large it was, he added.

On Wednesday, a monstrous slab of rock, perhaps 13 stories tall, 65 feet wide, and up to 10 feet thick, fell without warning from El Capitan, killing a climber and seriously injuring his wife, park officials.

The victim was identified as 32-year-old Andrew Foster, of Wales. 

During the course of a four-hour period Wednesday afternoon there were seven rockfalls from the iconic granite monolith that towers over the Yosemite Valley and which draws climbers from throughout the world.

"A preliminary estimate for the cumulative volume of all seven rockfalls is about 16,000 cubic feet, or about 1,300 tons," Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said. "The irregular 'sheet' of rock that fell is estimated to be 130 feet tall, 65 feet wide, and 3-10 feet thick. The source point is about 650 feet above the base of El Capitan, or about 1,800 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley (which is at 4,000 feet in elevation)."

After the initial rockfall, Yosemite rangers and the park's search-and-rescue team searched the base of the rockfall for people.

"Two people were found, resulting in one fatality and a serious injury. The victims, a couple visiting the park from Great Britain, were in the park to rock climb but were not climbing at the time of the initial rockfall," Mr. Gediman reported. "The male was found deceased and the female was flown out of the park with serious injuries. The National Park Service is working with the British Consulate to notify family members. Until family  notifications are completed, the names of the victims are not being released. All other people in the area have been accounted for and search efforts have been concluded."

Rockfalls are a common occurrence in Yosemite Valley and the park records about 80 rockfalls per year; though many more rockfalls go unreported.  The rockfall from El Capitan was similar in size and extent compared with other rockfalls throughout the park, though it is not typical that that there were victims, the park said.

It has been 18 years since the last rockfall-related fatality in Yosemite. In that incident, rock climber Peter Terbush was killed by a rockfall from Glacier Point on June 13, 1999.  There have now been 16 fatalities and more than 100 injuries from rockfalls since  park records began in 1857.

Rock dust kicked up by the rockfall Wednesday was captured in this photo by Tom Evans/Via NPS

The area outlined in yellow was where the rock sheet calved on Wednesday. For comparison, note the climbers up and to the left of the outline/NPS