11 June 2010

Two very interesting galleries of recent landslides

Posted by Dave Petley

I am now trying to catch up on everything that has been pushed aside by the Attabad landslide saga.  Whilst all of this has been going on there have been a number of other substantial landslide events.  Two of these have impressive galleries of images available, both of which are worth a look:

1. Tropical Cyclone Agatha in Guatemala
The landfall of Tropical Cyclone Agatha on 29th May triggered extensive landslides over a wide area in that country, killing over 150 people.  One of the affected areas was the town of San Antonio Palopo.  A group of the expatriates have set up a website appealing for assistance (I have no idea as to the legitimacy of this appeal, but also have no reason to disbelieve them).  They have put a gallery of images online here.  An example of the images is this:

2. Lanckorona, Poland
Meanwhile, the town of Lanckorona in Poland is being slowly destroyed by a large, slow moving landslide, with terrible consequences for the inhabitants.  At the time of writing, a second phase of movements has been reported.  There is a couple of decent videos of the town here, but most impressive (and dreadful) is the extensive gallery of images here, including these two:

Both sets of images are worth a look