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12 September 2008
The location of the Cairo landslide
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 …
11 September 2008
Updates on the Cairo and Shaanxi landslides
It is unusual to have two major stories running simultaneously about landslides so here is a combined update: 1. The Manshiet Nasser landslide in Cairo The death toll in the Cairo landslide disaster continues to rise – it is now officially 69 people. There seems to be considerable confusion about how many people are left trapped – but is fair to say that there is now no hope of rescuing …
10 September 2008
China tailings dam disaster death toll
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 …
9 September 2008
Updated: A flow slide disaster in China
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 …
8 September 2008
Catastrophic rockfalls in the Middle East
The terrible landslide at El Doweiqa in the Manshiet Nasser slum in Cairo (see earlier posts here and here) continues to shock. The death toll has now reached 45 people, with many more still buried in the debris. News reports suggest that there is growing dissatisfaction with the response of the authorities in Egypt. To be fair, relatives in disasters such as this are often very frustrated at the speed …
7 September 2008
The Cairo rockslide foreseen?
EPA/MIKE NELSON image showing the displaced blocks at El Doweiqa The death toll in the rock slide at El Doweiqa in the Manshiet Nasser slum of east Cairo is slowly creeping upwards. At the time of writing it has exceeded 30 people, but unfortunately as the image below shows the likelihood is that it will be much higher once these huge blocks have been shifted (if ever). As an aside, …
6 September 2008
Early reports of a rockslide disaster in Egypt
The newswires are providing early reports of a terrible rockslide at Deweka (also reported as Bekheit and Manshiyet Nasron) on the outskirts of Cairo in Egypt. The slide appears to be a rather strange failure of a rock slope, releasing huge boulders that have buried several (and possibly many) buildings. This Al Jazeera post contains a very useful report and also has this image of the site: They are reporting …
5 September 2008
Hurricane landslides in Haiti
A perennial landslide story at this time of year is the triggering by a tropical cyclone of landslides in Haiti. This year the hurricane season has been particularly cruel, with three large events in a month. Hanna, the most recent, appears to have stalled close to Haiti for a day or so, causing torrential rainfall. At the moment reports suggest that 136 people have been killed in flash floods and …
31 August 2008
UPDATED 4th Sept: Magnitude 5.7 earthquake in China
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 …
30 August 2008
Submarine landslide in southern Africa?
The award for the strangest landslide story of the week goes to this one, from southern Africa. Late last week reports started to emerge of strange tidal patterns around the southern Cape of Africa (Fig. 1). Fig. 1: Google Earth image of the southern Cape of Africa, showing the location of St Helena Bay and Plattenburg Bay. In particular, on 21st August at about 8:45 am (local time) a series …
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
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