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6 August 2010
Debris flow disaster in Leh, Indian Kashmir
Thanks to several people for the heads up on this. Various Indian news agencies are reporting that the town of Leh in Ladakh, Indian controlled Kashmir was hit by a series of debris flows / flas floods triggered by a cloudburst. The reported death toll is currently reported to be at least 50, and may increase substantially. This Panoramio image gives a fairly good idea of what Leh is like:
14 June 2010
Impressive mud and debris flow in Oliver, British Columbia
Thanks to a number of people for bringing this one to my attention. The community of Oliver in British Columbia yesterday suffered an impressive mud and debris flow that is reported to have destroyed five homes (images from the Vancouver Sun): The flow has clearly come out of a deeply incised gully in the mountains: A perspective view of the excellent Google Earth imagery of this area is rather helpful: …
30 April 2010
New landslide video from Brazil
Live Leak has an impressive video of a large debris flow striking and destroying a house, reportedly in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil : http://www.liveleak.com/e/8d9_1269224599
16 December 2009
Ten years ago today – the Vargas landslide disaster
Today is the tenth anniversary of probably the greatest landslide disaster in living memory – the 1999 Vargas landslide catastrophe in Venezuela. On 14th-16th December 1999 a coastal storm in Vargas triggered multiple debris flows that swept onto the densely populated river deltas below. It is estimated that 30,000 people died. The USGS summary of the event, which remains the best starting place to understand the disaster, is here, which …
30 September 2009
Debris flow damage from Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan
In addition to visiting the Shiaolin landslide in Taiwan at the weekend, we also managed to visit a couple of other places that had suffered damage during typhoon Morakot. Damage from debris flows and river floods occurred extensively throughout the upland areas of southern Taiwan, as these images show: The government has set aside about US$5 billion for reconstruction. Unfortunately this area is threatened by another typhoon, called Parma:
22 September 2009
After Morakot
A new blog, called After Morakot, has been started to highlight the impact of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. The most recent post describes a journey by the author into the village of Namsia, which was one of the most seriously affected villages in the typhoon. The images and the commentary are remarkable. I reproduce here two of the images, of the village of Mintsu – there are many more on …
10 August 2009
A dreadful weekend of landslides
The last few days have been a dreadful period for landslides. I really cannot cover all that has happened in enough detail, so all I can do is to outline the main events: 1. Rotorua rockfall, New ZealandActually the period started with a very lucky escape in New Zealand on Thursday when a rockfall on a slope under maintenance crushed a car with two passengers. Both were trapped but were …
26 July 2009
Two recent landslides at hydroelectric sites in China
In the past week China has suffered two rather extraordinary landslide accidents at hydroelectric plants. The first occurred an 20th July 2009 near to the Xiaowan hydroelectric power station in Yunnan province. The dam, shown in the artist’s impression below, will apparently be the world’s tallest arched dam, standing 292 m high when finished. It is still under construction, with the first turbine expected to be operational later this year: …
30 June 2009
Three new landslide / debris flow videos
Thanks to Lynn Highland at the USGS for drawing my attention to this video of a debris flow in Costa Rica: This is a slightly strange event. It occurred on the Sarapiqui River in Costa Rica after the 16th January 2009 Cinchona earthquake. It is not all clear why the earthquake should have triggered such a debris flow given that there was no rainfall, but a suggestion is that there …
7 January 2009
An update on landslides in Beichuan
At the time of the Wenchuan earthquake I posted on numerous occasions about the landslides around the town of Beichuan. One of the concerns has always been the likely behaviour of the landslides during heavy rainfall events. As part of the forthcoming Sinorock 2009 conference in Hong Kong there will be a tour to the earthquake-affected area to look at and discuss the landslides. The organisers have put together a …
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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