7 February 2010 22:07 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The Station Fire was a huge forest fire that occurred on the northern edge of Los Angeles in late 2009:It was finally brought under control on 16th October 2009, by which time it had burnt a huge area, thought to be over 160,000 acres (image from NASA): In the aftermath of the fire considerable concern has been expressed about the potential for damaging mudflows in the burnt area, magnified by …
Tags: california, forest fire, landslide report, mudslide, USA
25 January 2010 05:23 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
The Pamir Times continues to provide excellent coverage of the state of the landslide dam at Attabad in Hunza, N. Pakistan (see earlier posts here, here, here and here). First, they have posted another remarkable image of the landslide in action: Second they have provided various reports on the state of the efforts to mitigate the rising water level and to reopen the highway. It is clear that the road …
Tags: Attabad, barrier lake, landslide dam, landslide report, pakistan
19 October 2009 20:33 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Latest update here Unfortunately the news on typhoon Lupit (Ramil in the Philippines) is not getting any better. The storm has now turned towards the west and is picking up speed. It is now moving on a bearing of about 300 degrees at about 9 knots (c.17 kmh). This means that it is forecast to start to make landfall on the northern side of Luzon on Wednesday / Thursday. The …
Tags: hurricane, Lupit, Mexico, philippines, typhoon
3 September 2009 20:07 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Rhododendrons are one of those plants that, when planted well, can create an amazing garden: (from: http://www.kelleriisgaarden.dk/rhododendron-eng.html) However, it might surprise you to hear that they can be a major cause of landslides. As the image below shows, rhododendrons are increasingly grown on the mountain slopes of the Appalachians: (from: http://toursinthesmokymountains.com/SmokyMountainsInDepth.aspx) As well as creating a somewhat beautiful landscape, rhododendrons have been grown in the Appalachians as a result of …
Tags: paper, research, root strength, USA
16 July 2009 21:17 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Every so often an event occurs to shake up out of our complacency. So often this is a disaster that is mind-bogglingly destructive, such as the Wenchuan Earthquake landslides last year. However, just occasionally something that happens that is far less damaging than would be expected. This of course is easier to ignore, but in fact can be just as informative as the big events. Yesterday is just such a …
Tags: earthquake, landslide report, New Zealand
5 May 2009 08:16 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
This is a guest post from Bill Rabenaldt from California about a novel soil nail mitifation technique. Can you nail jell-o to a wall? Not easily. Can you nail a landslide area, levee or bluff before it fails? You bet! The valley floors around Aspen, Telluride and other resort areas in the Rockies are all but built out. Where do business and families go? The surrounding hills and mountain sides …
Tags: california, coastal erosion, mitigation, USA
15 January 2009 22:31 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Thanks to reader Gregory T. Farrand who brought my attention to a very intriguing feature located in Death Valley in California. This is a feature that was first identified and mapped as a long runout landslide by Michael W. Hart. Greg and Michael, together with Brian Olson and Phil Shaller, are currently studying this slide, which they are terming the “Eureka Valley Landslide”. The source rocks for the landslide are …
Tags: arid, landslide report, Mars, runout, USA
18 December 2008 09:20 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
There is a very interesting paper in press in the International Journal of Health Geographics on the spatial patterns of mortality (deaths) from Natural Hazards in the United States. The paper, entitled “Spatial Patterns of Natural Hazards Mortality in the United States” by Borden and Cutter is in pre-print form but can be downloaded as a PDF here. First up, lets be clear that the authors are reputable – Susan …
Tags: landslide map, paper, research, spatial pattern, USA
2 December 2008 21:18 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Back in August I posted on the strange phenomenon of burning landslides. This is an interesting and surprisingly common phenomenon in which a slope failure exposes materials in the soil or rock that oxidises to generate large amounts of heat. At times this effect can be strong enough to actually ignite – in Dorset in England for example organic matter in the Kimmeridge Clay (which is the main source rock …
Tags: burning, california, fire, landslide report, USA
25 November 2008 21:50 in Uncategorized by Dave Petley
Readers will probably be aware that last week the First World Landslide Forum was held at the United Nations University in Tokyo. This was apparently “a global cooperation platform for all types of organizations from academia, United Nations, governments, private sectors, and individuals which are willing to contribute for landslide and other related earth system risk reduction.”Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend, but two of my colleagues (Nick Rosser and …
Tags: conference report, japan, World Landslide Forum
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