2 December 2015

Shouf Mountains, Lebanon – a fascinating new landslide video

Posted by Dave Petley

Landslide in the Shouf Mountains, Lebanon

This video was posted on Youtube yesterday showing a large rock topple event in the Shouf Mountains (sometimes spelt Chouf Mountains) of Lebanon:

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The accompanying text provides little information:

Major landslide in Lebanon Shouf mountains. Luckily everyone was evacuated after first rockfalls. Keep an eye at the 1:02 mark and forward.

However, there is a news report on YaLibnan that provides some more information (and includes the video):

Horrified Residents of the town of Kfarnabrakh in the Chouf region evacuated their homes Monday after a landslide hit the outskirts of the town .   “Very dangerous landslides have occurred in the outskirts of the Chouf town of Kfarnabrakh above the towns of Wadi al-Sitt and al-Fowara,” National News Agency reported.  The landslide took place on Monday afternoon.

There are some images that show the aftermath.  This one for example, from L’Orient Le Jour, shows some of the debris at the foot of the slope.  The retaining wall has performed well!

Shouf Mountains

Shouf Mountains landslide from L’Orient Le Jour

 

It is a pretty amazing example of a very large, complex rock topple.  This image, from the video, shows the block rotating forward in the main collapse event:

 

Shouf Mountains

Landslide in the Shouf Mountains of Lebanon

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Acknowledgement

Thanks to the Canadian Geotechnical Journal () via Twitter.  The original video was posted by Chadi El Mohtar (@ProfElMohtar).