14 April 2009
A round-up of some recent landslide events
Posted by Dave Petley
I thought that it was time to provide a round-up of some landslide events from around the world:
1. A narrow escape in Australia
Thanks to Remke van Dam for bringing this one to my attention. This Australian family had a pretty lucky escape last week when a pair of large rocks struck their car (image from here):

2. A road-blocking rockfall in Alaska
Thanks to John Fritz for this one. In Alaska, a pretty large rockfall has blocked the Whittier tunnel (see news report here):

The landslide occurred on Saturday; the road is expected to be blocked until Wednesday.
3. A fatal landslide in Idaho
In contrast to the first item above, a very unlucky couple were killed by a landslide in Idaho last week. According to this report, the couple’s 4×4 (SUV) was hit by a tree that had toppled onto the road as a result of a small landslide near to Orofino. As the image below (from here) shows, the tree hit the cab, killing the occupants:


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.