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24 November 2009
Satellite imagery of the El Salvador lahars
NASA has released before and after satellite images of the lahars (volcanic debris flows) triggered by Hurricane Ida in El Salvador earlier this month. The final toll of the landslides remains unclear, over 60 is the widely reported statistic. The images are false colour composites collected by the ASTER instrument. These images differentiate between vegetation, which appears as red colours, and bare ground, which appear as a blue-grey colour. Such …
8 November 2009
Reports of a very large landslide tragedy at San Vicente volcano in El Salvador caused by Hurricane Ida?
It is becoming clear that Hurricane Ida has wreaked havoc in El Salvador over the last 48 hours, with many landslides. Over 100 people are known to have been killed, with the toll expected to rise over the next few days as more remote areas resume contacts. Intriguingly, the El Salvador news site ElSalvador.com has a report on the disaster here. It reports: “Según los últimos reportes, en Verapaz, en …
19 October 2009
Latest update on Typhoon Lupit (Typhoon Ramil) and Hurricane Rick
Latest update here Unfortunately the news on typhoon Lupit (Ramil in the Philippines) is not getting any better. The storm has now turned towards the west and is picking up speed. It is now moving on a bearing of about 300 degrees at about 9 knots (c.17 kmh). This means that it is forecast to start to make landfall on the northern side of Luzon on Wednesday / Thursday. The …
2 August 2009
The low level of NH hurricanes and typhoons in summer 2009
One of the reasons that the northern hemisphere summer is essentially the global landslide season is that landfalling tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) represent a rather efficient way of triggering slope failures. This is especially the case in the Caribbean, Taiwan, Japan, SE and S China, the Philippines and Vietnam. Typhoon rain is astonishing to experience for the first time – peak intensities of 100 mm per hour are not …
5 April 2009
The Casita landslide revisited
One of the most deadly hurricanes of modern times was Hurricane Mitch, which tracked across Central America in late October 1998. Many of the tens of thousands of victims were killed by landslides. Perhaps the most notable event was a lahar (a volcanic landslide) that swept down from near the summit of Casita volcano in Nicaragua, killing about 2500 people over the course of its 6 km path (and some …
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 …
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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