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31 December 2009
Mudslides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Various international news agencies are reporting that the year is ending with a number of fatal landslides in and around Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. For example, the BBC report says: “Heavy rains have caused floods and landslides in Brazil, leaving at least 11 people dead. Officials said the worst incident had occurred in Jacarepagua, in the western part of Rio de Janeiro state, where a family of five died …
23 December 2008
Brazil landslides
Over the last month Brazil has suffered terribly from heavy rainfall that has induced extensive flooding and landslides. Over130 people have been killed to date. This week, Minas Gerais state has been heavily affected. The Latin American Herald Tribune has today released this image of some of the damage. It shows how small, shallow soil slips are causing extensive damage to houses.
17 October 2008
Retaining wall collapse, Uganda
On Tuesday morning a collapse occurred in a retaining wall being constructed for the foundations of a new tower block in the capital of Uganda, Kampala. Two images have been published online of the failure, which buried nine workers, killing eight of them: Monitor online image of the Pensions Towers collapse site New Vision image of the Pensions Towers collapse site Collapses like this are now quite rare in more …
8 September 2008
Catastrophic rockfalls in the Middle East
The terrible landslide at El Doweiqa in the Manshiet Nasser slum in Cairo (see earlier posts here and here) continues to shock. The death toll has now reached 45 people, with many more still buried in the debris. News reports suggest that there is growing dissatisfaction with the response of the authorities in Egypt. To be fair, relatives in disasters such as this are often very frustrated at the speed …
6 September 2008
Early reports of a rockslide disaster in Egypt
The newswires are providing early reports of a terrible rockslide at Deweka (also reported as Bekheit and Manshiyet Nasron) on the outskirts of Cairo in Egypt. The slide appears to be a rather strange failure of a rock slope, releasing huge boulders that have buried several (and possibly many) buildings. This Al Jazeera post contains a very useful report and also has this image of the site: They are reporting …
22 June 2008
Garbage dump landslides
News today of a garbage dump landslide in Guatemala City on Friday that is believed to have killed at least 50 people (Fig. 1) has set me thinking of the hazards of these types of mass movements . The slide in Guatemala appears to be fairly typical of these events – a large number of very poor people who were scavenging for recoverable items in a dump that was known …
27 March 2008
UPDATE 3 (1st April 2008): Landslide in Alesund, Norway
Over the last thirty years or so there have been a series of nasty landslides under apartment blocks on the edge of cities. Examples that spring to mind include: 1972: Po Shan Road, Hong Kong – 67 fataltities1993: Highland Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 48 fatalties1997: Lincoln Mansions, Hsichih, Taiwan: 28 fataltites On 26th March 2008 there was an interesting landslide in the picturesque town of Alesund in Norway, once again …
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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