20 May 2010
Volcanic landslide in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Posted by Dave Petley
Whilst the Attabad landslide continues to be my major blogging preoccupation at the moment (I’m guessing you might have noticed…), of course other landslides continue to occur around the world. On16th May a slip happened on Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The reports suggest that 43 people are likely to have been killed, and a further 1,500 directly affected by this slide.
Nyiragongo volcano is active, so this is likely to be a lahar – i.e. a debris flow in volcanic deposits. This Google Earth image, although of low resolution, suggests that this is not the first failure on the east side of this volvano:
The El Salvador landslides of last year provide a good indication of the nature of a lahar – see previous posts here, here and here.
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.
The Attabad landslide has a major impact:1. closure of KKH2. 300'+ deep lake3. Mitigation effortsThanks for all your effort on that event!
Oh, and I should say, that's over and above the normal destruction–I don't want to minimize the loss of life, injury, underwater (literally) property, and so on. Many landslides have this, but the closure of a major highway for 4 months? Also that's the only highway, so it completely shuts down the land based motor vehicle travel.Most landslides also don't present the flood hazard to so many people some 4 months later.
Nice blog you have. Check out mine about Santorini Island in Greece, http://santorini-hotels.blogspot.com/ which was born of the eruption, of its volcano. I am sure you will be seduced by the view from every single corner on Santorini.
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