Artvin landslide via the Haber 3 website

Artvin, Turkey landslides

Heavy rainfall in Artvin, Turkey has led to extensive flooding and landslides in the last few days.  Today’s Zaman reports that eight people were killed and a further two are missing.  Landslides originating on the steep hills around the town seem to have been responsible for much of the loss.  There is a nice gallery of images on the Haber 3 website, from which the above image is taken.

There is a very interesting video on Youtube of the event:-

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Not much information is provided, and this is definitely a video that is worth viewing to the end as not much seems to be happening early on!.  I would note that this a landslide that in many ways is similar to the famous Lantau debris flows in Hong Kong, apparently starting as a smaller slip in weathered soil, and then transitioning into a highly mobile, highly destructive debris flow:

Given the number of people that were in the vicinity of the foot of the landslide, it is fortunate that the above landslide in particular landslide in Artvin was not a mass fatality disaster.

This video, also taken in the same rainfall event, is less dramatic but also quite interesting.  Again, watch to the end – those are very large boulders.