28 May 2008
Sichuan – what does a landslide look like in reality?
Posted by Dave Petley
Understanding what a landslide is actually like is rather difficult when you can only see the deposit and the scar. Now, all landslides are of course different, but in the case of Sichuan we are dealing with some of the most rapid and dangerous ones. So, I thought it would be constructive to post the following Youtube video, which was taken in Malaysia in 1993. Click on it to view – I promise you won’t be disappointed. It remains the very best landslide video that I have ever seen, despite the fairly poor resolution.
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
Interesting video. I am a Malaysian but I have never seen the video before. My guess is the landslide area could be around N4.44174 E100.61742 That mining lake is by the sea.
I have just made a Wikipedia page about the landslide, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Pantai_Remis_landslide. Have you found out anything more about the event? Has it been published in any journals or such like?
Got cut off. The wikipedia page title is 1993 Pantai Remis landslide
My wife tells me they are speaking Hokkien. Just the usual exclamations – "it's coming" and the like.
Amazing video, cannot imagine the sight when the Mediterranean was form as a result of the Atlantic Ocean breaking through the Gibratar land bridge eons ago. The Mediterranean is thought to have taken a hundred years to fill after the collasped. I believe something similar also happended between the Mediterranean and the Black sea. Someone should put together a geological documentary on this subject.
I agree about the probable Black Sea flood. I understand that there are entire villages intact on the bottom in the anoxic zone. Is this true, or just an “urban legend”?
Now I know where the idea for the ending to “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” came from. Astounding how that far wall just kept disintegrating once the initial failure triggered a “domino” process.