Ordu: a major rotational landslide in Turkey

News reports suggest that on Thursday 16th May a major slump type landslide occurred at Aybasti in Ordu in northern Turkey.  The best images of this very substantial landslide are on Twitter – the Daily Sabah tweeted this overview of the landslide after failure:-

The major rotational landslide at Aybasti in Ordu in northern Turkey on 16th May 2019. Image tweeted by the Daily Sabah.

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The displaced block is at the foot of the scarp, such that all of the properties oat the toe of the slope have slid vertically by 30 m or more.  The Daily Sabah has another very clear image from the opposite view:-

The major rotational landslide at Aybasti in Ordu in northern Turkey on 16th May 2019. Image tweeted by the Daily Sabah.

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News reports suggest that 53 buildings, including 31 houses, have been destroyed, as has a mosque.  Fortunately the site had already been evacuated because of earlier movements – clearly the properties at risk extend well beyond the block that has moved.  Based upon the images, I believe that this is the location on Google Earth:-

Google Earth imagery of the likely site of the landslide at Ordu in Turkey on 16th May 2019.

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If so the location is 40.672, 37.379.  Interestingly, Planet Labs have caught the landslide in action, or shortly after it slipped, on one of their Planetscope images.  The two images below show the affected area on 14th May 2019 at 07:53 UTC and on 16th May 2019 at 06:55 UTC. The latter image shows the development of the large scarp across through the village, and the displaced block:-

Planet Labs images of the site of the landslide at Aybasti in Ordu, Turkey. Images copyright Planet Labs 2019, used with permission.

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It will be interesting to view the next image in the sequence to see if further movement occurred after the image was collected.

Reference

Planet Team (2019). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA.