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15 January 2009
Intriguing long runout landslide in Death Valley
Thanks to reader Gregory T. Farrand who brought my attention to a very intriguing feature located in Death Valley in California. This is a feature that was first identified and mapped as a long runout landslide by Michael W. Hart. Greg and Michael, together with Brian Olson and Phil Shaller, are currently studying this slide, which they are terming the “Eureka Valley Landslide”. The source rocks for the landslide are …
6 January 2009
The Tennessee flow slide accident – what went wrong?
The fallout from the recent flowslide accident at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston power plant in the USA on 22nd December, which I highlighted here, continue. There is an increasing sense that this was an unacceptable failure (it is hard to argue with that) and that it was lucky that there was not a loss of life in the accident. This AP image is a good starting point as …
24 December 2008
Ash flowslide at Knoxville, Tennessee
A few months ago Shaanxi Province in China suffered a dreadful flowslide when the dam holding back mine wastes collapsed, releasing an avalanche of material onto the town below. About 260 people were killed. On 22nd December, what appears to be a similar failure occurred at Knoxville in Tennessee, USA, when the retaining wall holding back coal ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston Steam Plant in Harriman power station …
22 December 2008
Landslide on State Route 87, Arizona
Arizona Geology, the Blog of the Arizona State Geologist Lee Allison, has a new post highlighting the reactivation of an ongoing slope failure on Highway 87, which links Phoenix with the town of Payson. Movement on this slope was first noted in March 2008, whereupon emergency works were initiated to try to reduce the immediate hazard. Nonetheless, the road was closed for six days at that time. The failure is …
18 December 2008
Spatial patterns of deaths from natural hazards in the US
There is a very interesting paper in press in the International Journal of Health Geographics on the spatial patterns of mortality (deaths) from Natural Hazards in the United States. The paper, entitled “Spatial Patterns of Natural Hazards Mortality in the United States” by Borden and Cutter is in pre-print form but can be downloaded as a PDF here. First up, lets be clear that the authors are reputable – Susan …
2 December 2008
Burning landslides revisited…
Back in August I posted on the strange phenomenon of burning landslides. This is an interesting and surprisingly common phenomenon in which a slope failure exposes materials in the soil or rock that oxidises to generate large amounts of heat. At times this effect can be strong enough to actually ignite – in Dorset in England for example organic matter in the Kimmeridge Clay (which is the main source rock …
31 October 2008
New book: Landslides and Engineering Geology of the Seattle, Washington, Area
Seattle is an area that has both a long history of landslides and a long history of landslide research. For example, there is a 1974 USGS report online examining landslides triggered in a 1972 rainfall event. In 1996-7 a series of large storms triggered multiple damaging slides in Seattle. As a result, the USGS and Seattle agreed to start a major project to produce a range of landslide hazard maps …
27 October 2008
Rockfall sequence in Yosemite
Geology.com has a spectacular sequence of images of a rockfall in progress in Yosemite National Park that are well worth a look. The images (which are explicitly copyrighted, so I have not reproduced them here) were collected by a well-known photographer, Herb Dunn, in the canyon of the Merced River. The pictures show a fall from what appears to be a previously active rockfall scar. Below the scar there is …
20 August 2008
La Conchita landslide verdict
Many readers will be familiar with the La Conchita landslide in California. For those who aren’t, La Conchita a small (population about 340 people), unincorporated seaside village located on the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles (Fig. 1) (34.4 degrees north, 119.5 degrees west). The town is located on a narrow coastal plain, with a steep slope behind. The houses are very close to the foot of the slope (Fig …
7 August 2008
Mount Adams rock and snow avalanche
The online site Oregon Environmental News has today carried a rather nice article on a new, large, rock and snow avalanche on Mount Adams (Fig. 1) in the Cascade Range in Washington State. Mount Adams is a stratovolcano that has a long history of such events. Many readers will be aware for example of the 31st August 1997 event, which had a volume of about 5 million cubic metres, 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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