I am just going to write up one session from today’s meeting as it contained the most interesting talks that I heard. This was an annual session on landslides induced by volcanoes and earthquakes, the first three talks of which focussed on the Wenchuan event. Regular readers will know that I am very interested indeed in this event (see here for example). So first up was Ed Harp and two …

Updated to include the afternoon sessionsThis week is the annual European Geosciences Union assembly in Vienna. This is the biggest annual landslide meeting – there are >300 landslide related papers this time around – and since I am the scientific secretary for the landslide session I cannot allow the opportunity to comment on what I see to pass. So here are my thoughts on Day 1. My intention is not …

This is the second of my series of photographic reviews of the earthquake affected area in Sichuan Province. The other sets are as follows:Part 1: Beichuan town Part 2 (this part): The Tangjiashan landslide Part 3: Hanwang town Part 4: The Mianyuanhe area Part 5: The Xingyiu area On Sunday I was lucky enough to be allowed to visit the landslide site at Tangjiashan, thanks again to my friends from …

This is the first of my series of photographic reviews of the earthquake affected area in Sichuan Province. The other sets are as follows:Part 1 (this part): Beichuan town Part 2: The Tangjiashan landslide Part 3: Hanwang town Part 4: The Mianyuanhe area Part 5: The Xingyiu area Thanks to my friends in the State Key Laboratory for Geohazards at the Chengdu University of Technology I have spent the last …

You may have noticed that the number of posts on this blog has dipped of late. My apologies for this – we learnt just before Christmas that my seven year old son Adam needed open heart surgery, which was undertaken earlier this month. I am glad to say that it was a complete success and he has today returned to school, so normal service will hopefully be returned. So, I …

Given the time of year, I thought I would try to put together ten resolutions that could lead to a decrease in the impact of landslides. They are in no particular order and apply at a range of scales. I would welcome any comments. Before building infrastructure, we should always map the slopes to check for potential or actual landslides. This is not a complex or difficult thing to do, …

Here are my views of the Sendai landslide conference. The meeting was entitled “The First World Landslide Forum Satellite Conference”, with the theme of “Management of Landslide Hazard in the Asia-Pacific Region”. There were over 200 delegates from more than 30 countries, with many (but not all) Asia Pacific countries represented. The first memorable contribution was the short but sweet keynote by Alexander Strom. It is being argued by some, …

Occasionally I like to take a look back at a significant landslide. Today I thought I’d write about the amazing Yigong rock avalanche in Tibet. The location of the landslide is shown on Figure 1: it’s location is 30°14′ N, 94°59′ E, located high on the Tibetan Plateau. Figure 1: Google Earth image showing the location of the Yigong landslide. Click on the image for a better view. The landslide …

Tangjiashan was the most serious of the “quake lakes” (valley-blocking landslides) generated by the Wenchuan earthquake. Back in June I followed the remarkable exercise undertaken by the Chinese authorities to mitigate the problem by draining the lake. Once the lake was drained the concern was what would happen in the wet season. Today, China.org.cn is reporting that new problems have developed: Two people were dead and 30 were missing amid …

I thought that this would be a good time to review the situation with Tangjiashan now that water has been flowing for over a day. 1. Water flow is now apparently about 21.5 cumecs – up from 10 cumecs at about the same time yesterday. This is still not enough to balance inflow, so the lake level continues to rise. Of course as the lake level increases the rate of …