Caldas: a valley-blocking landslide at a landfill site in Colombia

On Monday 3 May 2021 a large and interesting landslide occurred at the La Granja landfill site in La Primavera, Antioquia in Colombia.  The best image (and a good report) is to be found in El Tiempo:-

The 3 May 2021 landfill landslide at Caldas in Colombia. Image via El Tiempo.

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Meanwhile, El Colombiano has this image of the aftermath of the landslide:

The aftermath of the 3 May 2021 landfill landslide at Caldas in Colombia. Image via El Colombiano.

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Note the trucks for scale in the image above.

The landslide has partially blocked the Medellín river, as the first image illustrates.  The landslide at Caldas appears to be a slump – not at all unusual in landfill materials – fortunately without a high level of mobilisation.  The trigger for the landslide appears to have been a spell of heavy rainfall, although erosion of the toe by the channel cannot be eliminated.

Monitoring is in place to manage the possibility of a flood downstream, but the flow in the channel appears to be quite modest.

Interestingly, the El Tiempo article has some statistics for landslides so far this year in Antioquia.  DAGRAN, the  Administrative Department of Risk Management of Antioquia, has recorded 56 landslide events in the rainy season so far this year (from March to the present day).  In comparison, they recorded just four events in the same period last year.  I wonder if this is associated with the current La Nina conditions.

Thanks to a tweet by Helbert Schneider (@HelbertSchneid1), which highlighted this event to me.