11 June 2011
A large landslide in China
Posted by Dave Petley
Unfortunately the landslide season in China, which last year caused so much destruction, is once again well underway. So far the largest event appears to have occurred in at Linxiang, which is in Yueyang in Hunan Province:
At this location Xinhua reports that a landslide occurred in the early hours of Friday 10th June. The images suggest that this was probably a debris flow:
The news report indicates that 19 people were killed and a further 28 left missing. A further three people were killed by landslides in Xiushui County in Jiangxi Province. To make matters worse, at the time of writing, Tropical Cyclone Farika is making landfall on the coast of Southeast China, and is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Guangdong and Fujian Provinces. This image from Tropical Storm Risk shows the storm track:
NASA’s Earth Observatory page shares the wisdom of a landslide expert, our Dr. Dave Petley:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50936