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25 March 2009
Beichuan – photos of the aftermath of a natural catastrophe
This is the first of my series of photographic reviews of the earthquake affected area in Sichuan Province. The other sets are as follows:Part 1 (this part): Beichuan town Part 2: The Tangjiashan landslide Part 3: Hanwang town Part 4: The Mianyuanhe area Part 5: The Xingyiu area Thanks to my friends in the State Key Laboratory for Geohazards at the Chengdu University of Technology I have spent the last …
4 February 2009
Virtual field trip – the Marcus landslide in Arizona
The Arizona Geological Survey have created a rather nice virtual field trip and very useful virtual field trip about the Marcus landslide in Arizona. It is available here: http://www.azgs.az.gov/MarcusLandslide_2008.shtml The slide is a 500,000 year old rock slide that has has a length of about 2 km from scarp crown to deposit toe (see Google Earth image below) and a deposit volume of about 5.25 million cubic metres. The elevation …
12 November 2008
Highway 97 reopens
Highway 97 in Canada reopens today having been closed for 19 days. The construction teams have blasted 34,000 cubic metres from the crown of the landslide and have moved it to the toe. In consequence the slope has effectively stopped moving. The contractor will continue to monitor it to check that it remains stable, but the prognosis is probably good. There is a terrific image gallery of the works here: …
6 November 2008
Highway 97 update
Blast on the problem slope on Highway 97 (from CBCnews) Attempts to deal with the slope problem on Highway 97 in Canada continue in a quietly controlled manner, and there are now some signs of success. The focus continues to be upon small blasts at the head of the slope to remove material, which is then transferred to the toe to support the mass and to protect the highway. The …
31 October 2008
Did you hear the one about a goat in a landslide?
A bit of light relief over at the Highway 97 site in Canada, which continues to slip. Arthon have a pictorial report on their website of the rescue of a mountain goat that had fallen down the tension crack and become wedged 10 m below the surface (all images from the Arthon website): Fortunately, the goat (now named Houdini) was spotted and a rescue was put in place. Enter the …
30 October 2008
Highway 97: test blast
The latest report on the Highway 97 problem in Canada (see earlier posts here, here and here) is as follows: The contractor, Arthon, released a statement to the press yesterday, the key points of which stated that “Highway 97 remains closed north of Summerland until further notice due to an unstable rock mass above the highway. The slope continues to move, therefore the highway is not safe to reopen. Safety …
29 October 2008
Highway 97 latest update
The latest update on the Highway 97 landslide in Canada (see here and here) is as follows: The slope is still moving. Between 19:00 on Monday and 14:00 on Tuesday the mass moved about 15 millimetres (i.e. about 0.8 mm per hour). This is quite high for a large mass. The rate of movement is described as being constant; The mobile volume is now estimated to be 200,000 cubic metres; …
28 October 2008
Highway 97 update
Arthon have posted an update on their website of the situation at Highway 97 in Canada:“Slight movement in Rock Mass overnight. Road likely closed until Thursday at a minimum. Options being considered for removal of rock” There is also quite a nice news report with footage here. In the report there is a good description of the use of precursor indicators that can be used to warn of a large-scale …
9 October 2008
Young River Landslide, New Zealand
Interesting news from New Zealand, where for the last few months there has been some concern about a landslide dam on South Island. The landslide itself occurred in a fairly remote area of the Southern Alps at 4:40 am on 29th August 2007. The landslide, which is well-described in a GNS Science poster here (there are some great images and some good data on that poster), blocked the river valley …
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