Planet Labs imagery of the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure

Back in early July I blogged about yet another tailings dam failure, this time at the Mishor Rotem facility in Israel.  I have seen remarkably little about the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure since – far less than for many other tailings dam events.  Lindsay Newland Bowker has an article on her blog about it that includes this photograph of the failure:

A photograph of the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure, via Lindsay Newland Bowker and REUTERS/Baz Ratner

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She reports that 100,000 m³ of tailings were released in the collapse event, flowing 20 km down the Ashalim riverbed. This is a Planet Labs satellite image of the site captured the day before the failure:-

Planet Labs image of the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure site,collected on 30th June 2017.

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The tailings pond that suffered the failure can be clearly seen in the lower central part of the image.  Compare that with this image, taken on 1st July:-

Planet Labs image of the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure, collected on 1st July 2017.

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The breach in the dam wall is clearly visible, as is the spilt material.  Note the trail of waste in the river bed in the northeast corner of the image.  A clearer view of the breach is visible in this more recent Planet Labs image:

Planet Labs image of the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure, collected on 25th October 2017

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The trail of environmental damage left by the tailings dam failure can be clearly seen in this Planet Labs image, collected on 2nd July 2017:

The trail of environmental damage caused by the Mishor Rotem tailings dam failure. Image by Planet Labs on 2nd July 2017.

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It will be interesting to see if there is transparency in terms of the investigation of this tailings dam failure, in the way that there has been for other recent events.  Given the frequency of these events (this listing makes for dreadful reading), it is important that each event is analysed and that the lessons are shared.

Reference

Planet Team (2017). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://api.planet.com