A first report of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan today

Part 8 of the occasional series on landslides as the subject of art. This edition features a painting of Goldau by JMW Turner, dating from 1843. It shows the aftermath of the September 1806 catastrophic landslide that destroyed the village.

Thanks to Rick Guthrie for pointing out in a comment another interesting Canadian conference on natural hazards.  This is the 5th Canadian Conference on Geotechnique and Natural Hazards, also known as Geohazards 5, which will be held in Kelowna, British Columbia on 15th to 17th May 2011.   The call for abstracts closes on 29th October, and includes papers on the following: Seismic hazards Flooding and natural dams Landslides Quantitative …

The Discovery Channel has news of a very interesting example of rapid coastal erosion driven by the earthquake in Haiti. The site is at Petit Paradis to the west of Port-au-Prince. Eye-witness reports suggest that the town was struck by a highly localised tsunami in the earthquake, apparently killing 20. This is interesting in part because it is quite likely such a localised event would have been caused by a …

As we are now at the end of the “noughties” I thought that it would be interesting to compile a list of the ten most important “natural” (i.e. geophysical and hydro-meteorological) disasters of the decade. This is not intended to be a list of the ten most damaging or with the highest number of fatalities, but more to reflect events that changed the way that we think or act about …

As we are now at the end of the “noughties” I thought that it would be interesting to compile a list of the ten most important “natural” (i.e. geophysical and hydro-meteorological) disasters of the decade. This is not intended to be a list of the ten most damaging or with the highest number of fatalities, but more to reflect events that changed the way that we think or act about …

I am struggling to keep up with the natural disasters at the moment. The main point of this post is to highlight the continued threat of Typhoon Parma to the northern Philippines. The current track forecast has it making landfall in the next day or so in the northern part of Luzon. The forecasts are still that it will stall as it makes its way across that area – this …

My Alma Mater, University College London, is this week hosting an interesting colloquium on the theme of “Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards“. This is a really interesting topic and the organisers should be applauded for attracting some really interesting talks. If it wasn’t for the fact that I am heading out to Asia on Wednesday I would attend for sure. However, the Observer, which is the Sunday version …

NB: I have posted an update on this landslide here. A somewhat intriguing landslide occurred on Saturday at Nachterstedt in Germany (the location is 51.808 N, 11.343 E for those who are interested). The site is the edge of Lake Concordia, a flooded open cast coal mine: The mine apparently closed in 1991 whereupon it was converted into a recreation area. The lake was apparently created in 1994. Reports suggest …

Most people would probably not think of Norway as being hazard prone, but it does have two particular landslide issues. The first is that occasional large-scale failures occur on the walls of fjords. Given the height of these rock walls, these failures can be large and energetic, and sometimes trigger small scale tsunamis. The other is a strange type of failure known as a quick clay slide. Perhaps the best …