The Kolontar dam failure in early October 2010, which caused the red sludge disaster that received considerable attention, is reported to have been associated with a foundation failure, as suggested on this blog immediately after the event.

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, …

For the first time in recorded history the monthly fatal landslide map is actually on time! Below is the map for September 2008. First the statistics:Number of recorded fatal landslides: 59Number of recorded fatalities: 1290 September has been a quite bizarre month, with fatal landslides occurring at a level that is much higher than expected. As such this continues the trend for August, which was also above average, but it …

Xinhua is today reporting that: “The State Council, China’s Cabinet, has sent a team to investigate the landslide that buried dozens of people in the northern Shanxi Province, but was initially played down by local authorities. The landslide toppled a waste dump of a local iron mine and buried Sigou Village in Loufan County in the suburbs of the provincial capital Taiyuan on Aug. 1.” The landslide was reported to …

Thanks to posters over at the EgyptSearch forum, and in particular poster AntonD who finally identified the place, I can finally identify what I think is the location of the Cairo landslide. The point is at: 30 degrees 2.728 minutes N, 31 degrees 17.261 minutes E. This is the Google Earth image of this point: The cliff from which the failure occurred is clear, as are the houses below. According …

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 …