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5 November 2010
Hurricane Tomas, Mount Merapi and landslides in Costa Rica
With three substantial natural hazard events occurring simultaneously, I thought I would post a round-up of those rapidly-evolving events: 1. Hurricane Tomas As feared, Hurricane Tomas is now bringing heavy rainfall to Haiti. The path of the storm has been somewhat erratic, as the Tropical Storm Risk track map shows. However, the storm is now tracking in a generally north-northwesterly direction, and is likely to pass just to the west of …
27 October 2010
The Mantawai islands tsunami and the eruption of Mount Merapi in Indonesia
Indonesia is today trying to deal simultaneously with two substantial natural hazards of a rather different nature. The earthquake on Monday 25th October triggered a localised tsunami in the Mentawai islands, close to the epicentre, the Reuters Alertnet reports killed 108 people and has left a further 502 people missing. The data on the earthquake available on the USGS website suggest that this was a Mw=7.7 event at a depth of …
16 October 2010
Round up of landslide stories and events for the last week
In weeks in which I have been too busy to post a great deal of material, I often provide a summary of interesting landslide events around the world. This is the summary for the last week:1. A very strange landslide in Germany Thanks once again to Peter Diehl, the prize for bizarre landslide event of the week goes to a very strange event at a former lignite mine near Hoyerswerda, …
19 April 2010
Some reflections on the Eyjafjallajoekull ash cloud
Over the weekend I have been watching and reading the media response to the aviation ban resulting from the Eyjafjallajoekull ash cloud, and reading some of the online discussions. I would like to make four observations from a natural hazards perspective: A. This event is the result of a “perfect storm”.I have been surprised by the lack of reflection by the media, including by some scientists (see below), that the …
17 April 2010
Extraordinary video of a Jokulhlaup in Iceland
A jokulhlaup is a sudden release of water from beneath a glacier. One of the key triggers for Jokulhlaup is the eruption of a volcanic beneath an icecap. It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that jokulhlaups have been triggered by the Eyjafjallajokull eruption that is causing such chaos across Europe (guess who was supposed to go to Hong Kong on Thursday…), and increasingly beyond. Now, a jokulhlaup is not …
30 March 2010
Is a lavafall a landslide?
The Mountain Cat Geology blog has an astonishing image of a lavafall in Iceland following the recent eruption (click on the image for a better view in a new window): I wonder whether this is technically a landslide, given that it is a mass movement consisting entirely of rock?
9 November 2009
El Salvador landslide disaster
The nature of the landslide disaster in El Salvador caused by Hurricane Ida is now becoming a little clearer. The largest event appears to have happened in the town of Verapaz, where it appears that a debris flow hit and destroyed part of the town. The reported death toll is 16 people, with a further 47 thought to be missing. There are two intriguing aspects to this landslide. The first …
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 …
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