30 January 2018
Three landslide videos
Posted by Dave Petley
Three landslide videos:-
It has been a while since I posted any footage, so here are three landslide videos that I have recently found:-
Clearing the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang (SUKE) highway in Malaysia
The New Straits Times has an interesting video of work to clear the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang (SUKE) highway in Malaysia. It appears that an excavator is removing debris from the road and dumping it down the slope. The large boulder generates an impressive amount of highly dangerous fly rock:-
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A very lucky escape in China
This bus just managed to avoid being struck by a significant rockfall in China at night:-
The key seems to be that he spotted debris in the road that had fallen during precursory activity. It appears that his act of slowing the bus meant that it avoided being flattened.
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An impressive rockfall in Slovakia
This rockfall occurred in Strecno, Slovakia in July, but I have only just come across the video. It shows a highly complex detachment event that involves sliding, toppling and finally free fall:-
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A rockfall at Strecno in Slovakia on 18th July 2017. Still from a Youtube video
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.
About the rockfall in Strecno: is anything know what the 2 or 3 people just above the rock are doing?
Is it an accidental, or an intentional rockfall?
Looks like a controlled rock fall, the top of the cliff seems heavily nailed.
It is not clear what triggered it but appears to be a classic topple mode of failure. I’ve seen random rock fall like that shown in the video numerous times. There is clearly no human intervention here
If you look closely, it looks like the person standing immediately above the failure is using a large rod to pry the rock away from the rock wall. If this were a natural failure, I suspect that the two people standing there would have shown a bit more concern or surprise.