20 October 2011

An interesting and large landslide in Iceland

Posted by Dave Petley

Summary: A brief report, including images, on a c.1 million cubic metre landslide in Iceland that occurred last Friday.

On Friday a landslide with an estimated volume of between 700,000 and 1 million cubic metres occurred at Eyjafjarðarsveit in northern Iceland.  The landslide, which appears to have been triggered by heavy rainfall, is quite a dramatic flow-type event.  It is covered in an article in Icelandic. The images below were taken by Gunnar Jonsson from Villingadal:

 

http://www.ruv.is/frett/stor-skrida-fell-i-eyjafjardarsveit

 

http://www.ruv.is/frett/stor-skrida-fell-i-eyjafjardarsveit

http://www.ruv.is/frett/stor-skrida-fell-i-eyjafjardarsveit

Interestingly the landslide does appear to have blocked the valley, and perhaps a small lake has formed upstream.  The water on the lower part of the landslide shown in the first image suggests that it may have overtopped already though.

It would be interesting to know if this event was captured on the Icelandic seismic monitoring network and, if so, what form the seismic signal took.