19 September 2014
Moving to the University of East Anglia and two new landslide videos
Posted by Dave Petley
Moving to the University of East Anglia
Regular readers will have noted my lack of blog posts in recent weeks, for which I apologise. As you may be aware I have been changing jobs – I gave up the Wilson Chair in Hazard and Risk at Durham University last Friday, and on Monday took up the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of East Anglia. The last week has been a whirl of introductory meetings, all of which have been great fun. This hasn’t left much time for the blog, but as I now feel established I will be returning to previous levels of activity.
So to get things underway again, two new landslide videos have appeared on Youtube in the last week:
A lucky escape in Costa Rica
In the last few days very heavy rainfall in Costa Rica has triggered extensive landsliding. This video shows a very lucky escape for a motorcyclist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTMJ4MJL7q8
It is of course only a small landslide, but illustrates nicely the dangers posed by even apparently superficial soil slides.
Ongoing landslides in northern India
Meanwhile northern India and Pakistan have been affected by heavy rainfall that has caused extensive damage (though has received very little coverage). This landslide in Ramban District appears to be causing considerable disruption to the road:
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.