O Globo in Brazil is reporting that another large landslide (in Portuguese “deslizamento de terra” for those looking the original website) struck the Niteroi area overnight, burying up to 50 houses, following the multiple slides yesterday.  The slide (shown below in an image from O Globo) occurred at Viçoso Jardim, in the Niteroi suburb of Cubango.  At least five people have been killed, with an unknown number of people missing.  …

Over the last few days the city of Rio de Janeiro, and its twin city Niteroi just across the water, have been affected by extremely intense rainfall – a reported 288 mm in 24 hours.  The upshot has been a series of flash floods and landslides that have killed over 100 people so far.  More heavy rain is expected today. O Globo has produced an interactive map of the Rio …

As a rule on this blog I try not to drift too far off-topic. Occasionally I will track a hurricane or a typhoon if there is the potential for them to trigger lots of slides. I never stray into the political domain on this blog – and I hope that I never will. So, today for the probably the first time, I am going to drift into a different field. …

The Naches landslide, as I reported in my post yesterday, is a somewhat intriguing failure. The weather conditions were dry, the rivers are in low flow conditions, and there has not been an earthquake that could have caused the failure. So what happened? A clue may be in the landslide type. Several reports have suggested that the initial failure was a rotational slide. I am struggling slightly to get a …

On Sunday a landslide occurred in the El Polbado neighborhood of the city of Medellin in Colombia. It is believed that 12 people were killed. ArabianBusiness.com has published the following images of the aftermath of the event: It is clear that this happened in a fairly wealthy area of the town, unlike many landslides in S and C. America, which occur in the slums and garbage dumps. Steep slopes are …

EPA/MIKE NELSON image showing the displaced blocks at El Doweiqa The death toll in the rock slide at El Doweiqa in the Manshiet Nasser slum of east Cairo is slowly creeping upwards. At the time of writing it has exceeded 30 people, but unfortunately as the image below shows the likelihood is that it will be much higher once these huge blocks have been shifted (if ever). As an aside, …