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28 June 2022
Always fly with the window blinds up: the West Salt Creek landslide
Always fly with the window blinds up: images of the large 25 May 2014 West Salt Creek landslide in Colorado, USA
6 April 2022
A tailings dam failure in Wenquan Township Jiaokou County, Shanxi Province, China
On 27 March 2022 a tailings dam failed at Wenquan Township, Shanxi Province, China. Satellite images from Planet reveal the scale of the event
24 January 2022
Thelkoloi: another tailings failure, this time in India
Thelkoloi: another tailings failure, this time in India On Thursday 20 January 2022 another tailings failure occurred, this time at Thelkoloi in Odisha, India. The failure has been reported in some of the media in India, but not more widely. For example, the Hindustan Times reports that the failure was in a slurry pond from the JSW Bhushan Power and Steel Limited works in Sambalpur district. It suggests that a …
13 January 2022
The Pau Branco landslide – video of the overtopping of the dam
The 8 January 2022 Pau Branco landslide in mine waste – CCTV footage has now emerged showing the overtopping of the dam
6 September 2021
Catoca mine in Angola – using satellite imagery to understand recent events
Catoca mine in Angola – using satellite imagery to understand recent events
12 March 2021
The stability of mine waste tailings facilities
In a new open access paper published in Scientific Reports, Franks et al. (2021) show that 10% of tailings facilities have a history of instability. This rises to 18.3% for active upstream facilities.
8 January 2021
Brumadinho: signs of precursory deformation
A new paper (Grebby et al 2021) uses InSAR to detect precursory deformation of the Brumadinho tailings dam before the disastrous failure in 2019. The authors suggest that the failure might have been predictable with use of appropriate monitoring techniques.
2 April 2020
High resolution Planet Labs imagery of the Luming Mine accident
Planet Labs have captured a high resolution SkySat image of the site of the Luming Mine accident in China, in which polluted water and sediment have been released
1 April 2020
More information on the Luming Mine tailings leak in China, including images of the disastrous downstream impacts
More information on the Luming Mine tailings leak in China on 28 March 2020, including images of the disastrous downstream impacts
31 March 2020
The Luming Mine tailings accident in China
A significant tailings accident occurred on 28 March 2020, this time at the Luming Mine in Heilongjiang Province in NE China.
10 February 2020
The exceptional mobility of tailings dam failures
The exceptional mobility of tailings dam failures I’m continuing to write my paper for the keynote at the 13th International Symposium on Landslides in Colombia this year (the paper is due this month, so the pressure is on). As I noted in a post last week, I’ve been looking at the impact of landslides in less developed countries; one key component of this is the impact of failures associated with …
20 January 2020
Brumadinho: the Expert Panel report on the failure of the Feijão tailings dam
Last month the official Expert Panel released its report on the Feijao tailings dam disaster at Brumadinho in Brazil, which killed over 300 people.
4 October 2019
Nosso Senhora do Livramento: another tailings dam failure in Brazil
On 1st October 2019, another significant tailings dam failure occurred in Brazil, this time at Nosso Senhora do Livramento in Mato Grosso.
20 September 2019
The 1985 Stava tailings dam disaster
The failure of the Stava tailings dam in Trento, Italy in 1985 generated a mudflow that killed 268 people downstream of the facility.
30 July 2019
Baikalsk: a horrifying example of a high risk waste storage facility in Russia
13 large waste storage ponds at Baikalsk, on the banks of Lake Baikal, appear to be exceptionally vulnerable to landslides and debris flows.
28 July 2019
The Cobriza Mine tailings failure: a high resolution image from Planet Labs
Planet Labs have kindly collected a high resolution SkySat image of the Cobriza Mine tailings failure in Peru, which happened on 10th July 2019.
16 July 2019
Cobriza, Peru: another significant tailings dam failure
On 10th July 2019 another significant tailings dam failure occurred, this time at the Cobriza mine in Peru, releasing cyanide pollution into the Rio Mantaro
28 May 2019
Gongo Soco mine: another potential tailings dam failure in Brazil
In Brazil another tailings dam, at the Gongo Soco mine in Barão de Cocais to the east of Belo Horizonte, is at risk of failure due to a rock wall collapse.
13 May 2019
Tailings dam failures: an interesting perspective article in Science
A Perspectives article in Science (Santamarina et al. 2019) argues that we need a better understanding of the processes leading to tailings dam failures as well as greatly improved management and regulation of tailings facilities
16 April 2019
Planet Labs Skysat image of the Hindalco tailings failure
Planet Labs have successfully acquired a high resolution SkySat image of the Hindalco Tailings failure in Muri, India, which occurred last week
