9 June 2011
Landslide reports – June 2011
Posted by Dave Petley
As an experiment, I am starting what is in effect an open thread. The aim is to invite readers to submit via the comments reports of landslides that occur in June. If successful I will start a new thread each month.
So, please submit any reports that you come cross of landslides that occur this month. This can be in the form of a sentence, a link to a news report, or suchlike. If possible, it would be helpful to include:
- when it occurred;
- where it happened;
- what was the trigger (it is fine to say unknown or even none);
- what was the impact (if any).
However, do still post even if some of this information is missing. Feel free to include any mass movement (including debris flows and rockfalls). If you have photos then feel free to email them to me, and if appropriate I’ll post them below.
My hope is that this will build up a permanent monthly record of landslides around the world.
I’ll go first:
There is a news report of a landslide in the Banihal area of Ramban, Doda District in India today. This killed one personand trapped 26 more in a tunnel, though they have now been rescued. The trigger was intense rainfall.
Report: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/1-killed-26-rescued-after-flash-floods-hit-banihal-area/801478/
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.
Crowd sourcing via the landslide blog…interesting!
Columbia is suffering from a long series of heavy rainfalls which intensified again in May and caused 467 deaths so far. A fatal landslide (there are probably more) has been reported for Monday 6/6 from the rural area at Santa Rosa, Bolívar district, 360 km north of Bogotá. Two fatalities and one person is missing were reported here:
http://tvn-2.com/noticias/noticias_detalle.asp?id=53249
Another report comes from San Pedro, Carchi Province, Northern Ecuador. Rainfalls triggered a landslide that destroyed two houses. 10 further houses are under threat.
http://www.cre.com.ec/Desktop.aspx?Id=143&e=153271
Landslides are a constant problem along Route 7 in eastern OH. This news article covers the most recent and mentions forthcoming drilling and remediation: http://www.wtov9.com/news/28157857/detail.html
Has slowed traffic and will cost >$13 million for all the work. I used to live in the area and landslides are a huge annoyance.
May flash flooding in Lawrence Co., OH brought many road blockages due to landslides and bridge washouts. Millions of dollars in damages: http://www.irontontribune.com/2011/06/08/fema-assessing-damage/
There are some pictures of the slide at Baggar, Jammu and Kashmir https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2011/06/09/some-notable-landslides-in-the-last-week Dave will be able to interpret the processes better than me but it appears that a mixture of mud and rock (some kind of slate?) was dislodged off a steep slope onto the road and perhaps caused some damage to the slope below the road. I don’t know exactly where the incident took place but Baggar is at 33°7’56″N 75°22’13″E.
Details of reports and pictures below.
Doda cloudburst: 3 feared dead, rescue work on, IBN Live, Noida, 9 June 2011 http://ibnlive.in.com/news/doda-cloudburst-3-feared-dead-rescue-work-on/158009-3.html
6 feared dead in Doda cloudburst, The Tribune, Chandigarh, 10 June 2011 http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110610
Baglihar infrastructure too suffers damages; one killed, 26 rescued, Daily Excelsior, Jammu, 10 June 2011 http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/11june10/news.htm#2 photograph http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/11june10/gallery.htm
Baggar tragedy, The Kashmir Times, Jammu, 10 June 2011 http://anax8a.pressmart.com/KashmirTimes//pdfhandler.ashx?Is=issue400&Dn=20110610&Tp=0&Fls=003 From the e-edition. Link may only be viable for a week.
1 dies, 26 rescued in Banihal, Greater Kashmir, Srinagar 10 June 2011 http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Jun/10/1-dies-26-rescued-in-banihal-36.asp
Mudslides have occured today June 10th in Southern Norway. The following newsreport is from a slide between Trondheim and Oslo just North of Lillehammer, a house and the main road were destroyed by landslide after period of heavy rainfall. Video of damage at this link (news report is in Norwegian). One person injured.
http://www.vgtv.no/#id=41611
The flood warning system in Norway did warn to expect a 50 year flood. Warm temperatures in the last week and presence of snow in the mountains has added to the problem.
The E6 and other roads between Oslo and Trondheim are completely block causing many problems at the start of a holiday weekend in Norway. Also one of the two mobile telephone networks is down (Telenor).
I’ll update this again if I get more info.
Bridget Hall
Engineering Geologist
Heavy rainfalls triggered floods and landslides in central China on Thursday, June 9. These events caused many fatalities: 35 people killed according to this report.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-06/10/c_13922097.htm
The report is most focused on flooding, but pay attention to the pages 5 and 8 where we can see respectively rockfalls and river bank strong erosion.
Access to the north entrance of Theodore Roosevelt National Park has been cut off. McKenzie County authorities say a landslide has covered both lanes of Highway 85, 17 miles south of Watford City, in North Dakota, USA.
They say there`s no telling how long it will take to clear the road, so drivers are being diverted at Watford City. There was another landslide nearby earlier this year.
http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=49896
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/06/mudslides_on_camp_road_strand_about_30_people_near_leavenworth_wash.html
When: Thurs eve/Fri morn
Where: ~10 mi west of Levenworth, Wa
Trigger: Heavy rain on snow, with already saturated ground.
Effect: Road blocked, ~30 people stuck on wrong side. No injuries reported.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/123692224.html
More info on Leavenworth mudslide; campers freed and video- I didn’t find video especially interesting.
A day of significant aftershocks in Christchurch NZ June 13th.
Main impact in Eastern suburbs (the port is also currently closed, but not due to landslides specifically)
Buildings damaged, roads temporarily(?) closed
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/5139282/Rocks-thunder-down-eastern-bay-precipices
Also of interest is shipping containers being used as rockfall barriers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10732093
Rain triggered landslide in early morning (Indian Standard Time) near Kurseong, Darjeeling District, kills four of family. This happened at St. Marie’s / St. Mary’s Hill (26°53’37.78″N 88°16’54.67″E) just north of Kurseong. Short report with photograph http://sikkimnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/kurseong-landslides-kill-four-snap.html
Here’s an article on a highway failure near Greybull, Wyoming, USA
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_77b83c59-9598-5677-a135-1d14730df910.html
Landslide at 11.55am NZT 18th June, Ohope, Eastern Bay of Plenty, NZ. Trigger was heavy rain (31mm in the hour prior).
One unconfirmed fatality, “This landslide engulfed a house on West End Road. Wreckage from the landslide covers nearly a quarter of an acre.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5162436/Teen-believed-dead-in-Ohope-landslide.
After almost a drought like situation where we had many of our perennial springs and drinking water sources drying up we have started our monsoons with a bang.
A depression which hung around stubbornly east of Kolkata from 16Jun-18Jun2011, resulted in intense rainfall all over Darjeeling district but which added upto 180mm (for a 24h period on 17Jun) at Kurseong. The rains triggered of a small landslide in the early morning, which snuffed out the lives of a young father and his 3 children.
It is covered in the STH blog along with landslides along the NH31A which has disrupted traffic on the highway linking Sikkim to the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, the monsoons have just started here…
Road blocked near Baggs, WY
Not sure this is a “landslide.” It is a sinkhole, due to steam injection in an oilfield operation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/mudslide-closes-trans-canada-highway-near-hope/article2080342/ and http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/29/bc-mudslide-transcanada-chilliwack.html – both reporting on a mudslide, closing the road between Chilliwack and Hope.
Landslide has closed Trans Canada Highway:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/29/bc-mudslide-transcanada-chilliwack.html
In the suburbs of Maoxian (31°41’13.96″N 103°51’6.52″E), Aba Prefecture, Sichuan. Just after midnight (morning) of the 3rd July. Mud-rock flow caused by ‘heavy rain’ ‘drowned a dormitory building at a chemical plant’. 27 rescued, 8 missing. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/03/c_13963015.htm
On the 2nd July rain induced landslides blocked road between Wenchuan (31°28’30.55″N 103°34’42.25″E) and Dujiangyan (30°59’41.12″N 103°37’58.71″E) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/01/c_13961369.htm