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2 November 2008
Landslide disaster in Yunnan, China
Xinhua, the Chinese Official news agency, is reporting a series of landslide disasters in Yunnan Province, China this weekend: “Twenty people died and 42 were missing after landslides and mud-rock flows hit southwest China’s Yunnan Province over the weekend, said local authorities. The disasters hit Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and four counties and a district of the provincial capital Kunming, the provincial civil affairs department said. More than 1,000 houses …
26 September 2008
The Yigong Rock Avalanche, Tibet
Occasionally I like to take a look back at a significant landslide. Today I thought I’d write about the amazing Yigong rock avalanche in Tibet. The location of the landslide is shown on Figure 1: it’s location is 30°14′ N, 94°59′ E, located high on the Tibetan Plateau. Figure 1: Google Earth image showing the location of the Yigong landslide. Click on the image for a better view. The landslide …
25 September 2008
Debris flows and fatalities
One question that I am quite often asked is why it is that fatalities in landslides occur more at night than in the day. In some ways this is counter-intuitive as one might expect that people would be safer in their houses than they are when they are out and about. At least a part of the answer lies I think in the destructive potential of comparatively slow landslides. Most …
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 …
12 June 2008
Debris flow video from Hong Kong
Thanks to a former student for bringing the following video to my attention. Hopefully it will play directly when you click on the box below – if not then take a look at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2uTKyK1c9k This channelised debris flow occurred on Lantau Island, near to Hong Kong airport, on 7th June when the area was affected by an exceptional (“black”) rainfall event. In a single hour Hong Kong observatory recorded 140 mm …
4 June 2008
Updated: Tangjiashan (Beichuan) dam – a summary of what we know
In the next 24-48 hours the water level at Tangjiashan should reach the spillway and flow should start. I thought therefore that it would be useful to summarise what we know about the site: The landslide dam is 124 metres high; At the time that the over topping begins the lake will have a volume of about 205 million cubic metres of water (UPDATED – the volume is now estimates …
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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