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26 May 2008
Tangjiashan (Beichuan) Lake – update
China Daily is today reporting that real progress is being made with the lake above Beichuan, which is now known as Tangjiashan Lake: Amid low visibility, a Russian helicopter successfully delivered a large bulldozer and other eight sets of big machineries near the swelling Tangjiashan lake, in order to dig a diverting channel to prevent a flood, said Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei. “I feel relieved this morning as …
23 May 2008
New images of Beichuan and its lakes
CCTV has posted the following image of the lake at Beichuan: Meanwhile Reuters have published this image, captioned: “An aerial view of the roofs of houses in earthquake-hit Beichuan, Sichuan province May 20, 2008. The houses, which were originally built next to a reservoir, were uprooted and floated downriver after water levels started to rise.” I suspect that by reservoir they mean river? AP has this image of the landslides …
22 May 2008
Beichuan landslide-dammed lake – new imagery
NASA has now released new images collected by the FORMOSAT-2 satellite of one of the lakes forming near to Beichuan in Sichuan behind the landslide dam shown in this post (click on the image for a better view).The first image shows a reach of the river upstream of the dam after the earthquake (on May 14th) but before the lake really started to form. The second image shows the lake …
20 May 2008
The problem of cracks in mountains after earthquakes
Xinhua is today reporting the following:Nearly 9,000 people in a quake zone were evacuated on Tuesday for fear that huge cracks on a mountain could lead to further disasters. Many crevices, measuring up to 1,500 meters long, 250 m high and 50 centimeters wide, have been spotted on the Shiziliang Mountain in the Qingchuan County seat, Guangyuan City, since Sunday, threatening about 50,000 people and quake-relief soldiers. Part of the …
Beichuan landslides from Google Earth
The FORMOSAT-2 image of the Beichuan area is now available on Google Earth (see here). The image is interesting as it shows that the landslides were incredibly spatially variable – for example, in the Beichuan area (which is junction of the rivers on the middle right of the image – the Google label is a little way from the main part of the town) the occurrence of landslides is very …
19 May 2008
Sichuan – further images of giant landslides
Two further images have been sent to me of giant landslides from the Sichuan earthquake. At the moment I cannot find out where they are from, although they clearly both show the same giant landslide. Note that the valley is completely filled (which means that a lake if forming somewhere upslope) and the amazing flow structures in the landslide mass. I wonder if this is the same landslide as is …
Beichuan – what happens when a massive rockslide hits a town
I am not normally a fan of Chicken Noodle News (CNN), but they have an interesting report detailing the damage in Beichuan resulting from the impact of the rockslide. It is worth a view. I cannot find a way to link to the original report, but there is a good quality version of it here. AP image captioned: Rescue workers search collapsed buildings in Beichuan, China’s southwest Sichuan province, Sunday …
18 May 2008
Landslides at Donghekou, Ciban and Kangle in the Sichuan Earthquake
Reports and images are now emerging of the complete burial of three villages, Donghekou, Ciban and Kangle, located on the Qingzhu river in Sichuan Provinc as a result of (separate) landslides in the Sichuan Earthquake. In particular, images are now available of Doghekou, which is one of the landslides that has blocked the river upstream of Beichuan. These three landslides have together entombed an estimated 300 families, which would indicate …
17 May 2008
Satellite imagery of the landslides in the Sichuan earthquake
Now that there is a brief weather window, satellite imagery is starting to emerge of the Sichuan Earthquake zone. At present most of these images are too low resolution to allow detection of the real damage to the buildings (which is notoriously difficult to achieve), but they are excellent for looking at landslides. The best to date that I have seen has come from the Taiwanese Formosat-2 instrument, which is …
Updated: The Beichuan landslides in the Sichuan earthquake
Some information is now becoming available about the impact of landslides in Beichuan. I have blogged before about this. However, a report in the Chinese Economic Observer online is now beginning to highlight just how bad the problem actually has been. This report states the following: In fact, landslides triggered by the May 12 earthquake had exacerbated the destruction in Beichuan. Take Maoba Middle School for instance, all traces of …
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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