The Chinese State news agency Xinhua is reporting that a landslide in Chongqing Municipality has buried about 60 people. UPDATE 2: The Chinese state media are now reporting 80 fatalities: “At least 80 people are feared buried in a landslide at an iron ore mining area in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Friday, according to the local government. Rescuers had pulled out seven injured people, including four seriously hurt, from …

Xinhua is reporting that a landslide triggered the partial collapse of an apartment block housing 32 families in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, on Saturday evening. They have published a couple of pictures of the aftermath, of which this is one: To date two bodies have been recovered and one injured person has been rescued. Judging by the above picture, and given the time of day in which the slide occurred, this …

Xinhua is reporting a landslide in Jinjiling Hill in Guilin, Guangxi yesterday that buried several houses and killed four people. Whilst in global terms the event was not huge, the images that Xinhua have published are quite interesting: Xinhua describes the event thus: “…several hundred tonnes of rocks and dirt gushed down from the mountain at about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. Four workers in charge of a cave-digging project in the …

Xinhua, the Chinese Official news agency, is reporting a series of landslide disasters in Yunnan Province, China this weekend: “Twenty people died and 42 were missing after landslides and mud-rock flows hit southwest China’s Yunnan Province over the weekend, said local authorities. The disasters hit Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and four counties and a district of the provincial capital Kunming, the provincial civil affairs department said. More than 1,000 houses …

Just a brief update on the latest estimate of the loss of life in the landslides last week in Egypt and China: Taoshi (Shanxi): as of 16th September the official death toll is 259 people. Searches continue (see above AFP image).Manshiet Nasser (Cairo): as of 16th September the official death toll is 92 people. It appears that recovery actions have now ceased as the site is considered to be too …

Reuters image of the search for victims Reuters is now reporting that the number of fatalities in the China tailings dam disaster (landslide / debris flow) is now 128 people. A unknown number remain buried in the debris. Interestingly, Xinhua appears to have ceased reporting on the event (corrected: they do now have a report), amongst suggestions that journalists are being kept away. The difficulties facing the rescuers are clear …

UPDATED: New image of the site addedUPDATED: Google Earth image of location added. Update: This image from http://aboutxinjiang.com/ shows the site of the failure. This confirms both the magnitude of the event and the type. This has been a terrible week for landslide disasters. Sadly, news emerged yesterday of yet another, this time in Taoshi township, Linfen County in Shaanxi province. I think that I have managed to identify the …

The USGS is reporting today that there was a Mw=5.7 (Xinhua is reporting M=6.1) earthquake in China at 4:30 pm local time yesterday. News reports this morning suggest that 25 people have been killed and a further 100 injured. I wouldn’t normally post on an earthquake of this size as the likelihood of triggering extensive landslides is limited. However, in this case there may be an interesting landslide angle to …

As heavy rainfall continues to affect many areas, two interesting new mudflow videos have been posted to Twitter.

In California a major landslide has occurred in Rolling Hills Estates, in Los Angeles County, reportedly damaging 12 houses.