17 May 2017
A new video of the giant Kurbu-Tash landslide in Kyrgyzstan
Posted by Dave Petley
A new video of the giant Kurbu-Tash landslide in Kyrgyzstan
AKI Press has posted to Youtube a new video of the extremely large Kurbu-Tash landslide in Kyrgyzstan:-
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The accompanying text states that:-
The landslide that started moving and damaging houses earlier engulfed 56 houses in total, the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said. As of May 13, some 35 power poles and several social objects are among those damaged by landslide. No victims were reported. The residents of the village have been earlier relocated. Employees of the Ministry removed all valuable things from houses and objects. Now 61 houses, a school, a kindergarten, a rural health post and a mosque are under the landslide threat. The massive landslide with the volume of 2.8 million cubic meters hit Kurbu-Tash village on April 23-24 and damaged 84.8 ha of agricultural land.
A couple of things of interest in this landslide. First, as I noted in my earlier post about this landslide, it is a reactivation of a portion of a much larger relict landslide complex. This complex can be clearly seen in the part of the video below:
The relict landslide complex that was the source of the Kurbu-Tash landslide. Still from a Youtube video by AKI Press.
Note the hummocky terrain that is so characteristic of landslides, and the huge lateral scarp cutting across the landscape. Second, there are signs that this landslide is very actively retrogressing and enlarging. The still from the video is particularly revealing, showing multiple areas of new failure:
Areas of enlargement of the Kurbu-Tash landslide in Kyrgyzstan. Still from a Youtube video by AKI Press
It is notable that this landslide is enlarging away from the main track of the slide. Unfortunately there seems little to stop further retrogression, with devastating effects on the grassland landscape. Sadly the spate of landslides in Kyrgyzstan this year shows no sign of ceasing – this report provides details of yet another major landslide yesterday, and a very lucky escape for the occupants of a truck.
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.
So, Osh is the opposite of Oso.
[Very interesting point – actually a back of the envelope calculation from Google Earth data suggests that this landslide has a length of about 4.5 km with a height difference of about 400 m. This would give an H/L ratio that suggests that it was more mobile than Oso! But in this case the velocity appears to have been much lower. Loess is a very mobile material. D.]
I find 3.3 km from a rough estimation based on a Sentinel-2 image captured on Apr 29 http://www.cesbio.ups-tlse.fr/multitemp/?p=10497
it always amaze me how the land is in lack of trees… Some good species with deep roots could probably strenghten the soil and decrease water pressure by evapotranspiration… for sure not enough for deep landslides but still better than nothing…