24 February 2010

Massive landslide in West Java, Indonesia

Posted by Dave Petley

A large landslide occurred yesterday in the Dewata tea plantation area in Pasir Jambu, Southern Bandung in West Java, Indonesia, burying the accommodation for temporary plantation workers. It is estimated that 70 people were buried by the slide. This image, from AP, appears to show the head of the landslide, which looks to be a large but comparatively shallow flow type failure in regolith:


The toe of the slide, including some of the impacted buildings, is shown in this AP image:


News reports suggest that to date 7 bodies have been recovered from the debris, with rescue operations continuing amongst heavy rainfall, which must place the workers at considerable personal risk.

Java consistently appears in the landslide database with very high fatal landslide occurrence. Tea plantations are also areas of high landslide hazard.