4 November 2010

The Rissa landslide – new (old) video available online

Posted by Dave Petley

The original and some would say best landslide video is of that of the April 1978 Rissa landslide in Norway.  I have mentioned this slide before – and indeed have hosted a link to the video, although that link is now dead.  In looking for background material for the amazing  Port Chibatao landslide in Manaus (if you haven’t looked at that video then you are really missing out) I found that the section of the original documentary is now available online:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3525831186169203832&q=mud%2Bslide&hl=en#

The Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Server site has a brief summary of the landslide here.   The landslide, which had a volume of 5 to 6 million cubic metres, was triggered by a small excavation for the foundation of a barn, and in particular by the emplacement of placement of the soil that was excavated as a berm at the edge of Lake Vatnen.  This is reminiscent in many ways of the Manaus event, which was reportedly triggered by a mechanical excavator.  The slide moved over a period of less than 10 minutes.  Fortunately, only a single person died.

As an aside the commentary of the video is wonderful.  It is a great shame that no-one speaks in that way anymore!

Similar events that I have featured in posts include: