19 January 2013
An interesting landslide in the Great Smoky Mountains
Posted by dr-dave
Thanks to Dana Soehn of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the images and explanation and to Ellen Hardy for both bringing this to my attention and linking me to Dana.
On 16th January heavy rainfall in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina triggered a large landslide that destroyed about 200 m of Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441). As the National Parks Service estimate that the landslide has a volume of about 70,000 cubic metres, and at least some landslide activity is continuing, it will take a while to reopen the road. The National Parks Service has very kindly provided the following images of the landslide:
Dave Petley is the Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His blog provides a commentary on landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
