18 December 2013
A dramatic new landslide video from Minas Gerais, Brazil
Posted by Dave Petley
Minais Gerais landslide video
Heavy rain in Minas Gerais, Bazil in recent days has generated large numbers of landslides. One of these, in Minas Gerais, killed a family of six people. This slide has apparently been caught on video, which is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3aiqai3Drw
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From the video I think the component captured on the film is a small, later stage event that followed the main failure. The slide appears to have been very translational in nature (there is an almost planar shear surface) but very rapid with a long runout. The image below, from O Tempo, supports this interpretation:
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The landslide location and details of the events
News reports suggest that this occurred on Tuesday, although there is little more information in English. This news report (in Portuguese) explains what happened (this is the Google translate version, with some edits from me for clarity):
Six people died on Tuesday (17 December), buried by a landslide caused by heavy rains in the rural municipality of Sardoá, located about 110 km from Governador Valadares, in eastern Minas Gerais. According to firefighters, of the six killed, four were children.
Also in the late morning of Tuesday, the 17th, another slip nearly caused another tragedy, while rescue teams worked in the attempt to recover three other bodies.
A clearing 100 meters opened in the middle of the eucalyptus plantation. The land of the hill gave way and buried a house that was underneath. Locals and city officials helped in the search. Other minor landslides were recorded during the action of the firefighters in the same region.
Because of the instability of the ground, the Fire Department has suspended the search in the early afternoon. Besides Firefighters Valadares, another team of 15 skilled in military burials followed from Belo Horizonte to Sardoá. The path is made by land because it still rains a lot in the region, meaning that a low cloud ceiling prevented flying.
Members of the State Coordination of Civil Defense (CEDEC), experts from the civil police and military police of Guanhães Sardoá also part of the task force that meets the occurrence.
My interpretation is that the video captured here is the second one (or one of the subsequent events) referred to in the article.
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.
Dave, there just one mistranslation that impedes understanding: The reason it was impossible for the helicopters to help was because of bad ceiling conditions to fly, and not because of lack of landing site (since they land in any open area).
News from this Thursday (19) says there’s still one missing body under the landslide (http://glo.bo/18ZB2pT). There were only 5 coffins in the wake ceremony.
Chances are we’ll be hearing a lot more about landslides here in the southeastern Brazil, due to active South Atlantic Convergence Zone. Although I hope not.
[Many thanks – I’ll correct the post. D]