17 February 2016
Yaglidere – a dramatic landslide video from Turkey
Posted by Dave Petley
Yaglidere landslide
This video was posted on Youtube on 11th February 2016. It appears to have occurred at Yaglidere in Giresun, Turkey. The comments that accompany it are in Turkish – Google Translate makes an interesting job of it (I have added some comments):
Giresun–YAĞLIDERE [Yaglidere in the English spelling] recently softened due to rains caused a landslide territory. The landslide occurred on a mountain roadside husband [I think husband is a mistranslation here – something to do with the landslide mass] landed almost flat. Mountain foothills before the break and then began her husband [mistranslation again for the landslide mass?] went down to a part of the river bed. Barely escaped with their lives on the edge of the road.
I think you need to read between the lines a little to understand this one, but if you do it seems quite clear.
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The development of the final collapse is certainly dramatic Note how the landslide transitions from an intact sliding block:
Yaglidere landslide via YouTube
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Into a fragmented highly mobile mass in just a couple of seconds:
Yaglidere landslide via Youtube
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The displacement of the water in the river is certainly impressive. The landslide appears to be in fine grained silts or sands – possibly loess? I cannot find any information about the superficial geology of Giresun.
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.
The landslide referred in the video at Yaglıdere, Giresun, Turkey (37T467890E, 4503640N at 650m.MSL) occured on 4 February, 2016 following quick melt of accumulated snow by heavy rainfall events. Based on the information provided by engineering geologist Assoc. Prof. Hakan Ersoy ([email protected]) of Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon, Turkey, surface morphology at the landslide area reveals likely presence of large-scale paleo-landslide mass overlying the highly weathered (exfoliated, arenaceous, argillaceous) intrusions of the upper Cretaceous Kaçkar Granitoids. The recent landslide has taken place in the paleo-landslide mass.
As seen in the related video showing the ultimate failure, the landslide was triggered by the earlier erosion of the natural slope toe by the river and progressed upwards under a combination of inclined base and pseudo-circular failure mode. The height of the near vertical exposed slide surface is approximately 20 meters. Please note that another slope on the left side of the current landslide is prone to a similar failure..
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Regarding the Google Translation of the news article: below is a bettter (?) English version:
“Recently, the soils softened due to rainfalls caused a landslide in Giresun–YAĞLIDERE [Yaglidere in the English spelling]. A mountain-size mass landed almost flat in a landslide occured along the roadside. The foothills started to break at the beginning followed by a large mass landing on the river bed. Those who were at the roadside barely saved their lives.”
Impressive!
Same slide seen from nearer by:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju8xQqd5L7o
Different one in the same region from January:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH4yMd0vjjI
From google earth I think the landslide is at:
40.700690 N
38.629878 E
Even though it is on the outside of a river bend it looks like the road is controlling the toe cut and not the river.