{"id":19019,"date":"2016-06-22T07:22:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T07:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=19019"},"modified":"2016-06-22T07:22:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T07:22:22","slug":"pingle-county-quarry-collapse-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2016\/06\/22\/pingle-county-quarry-collapse-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pingle County: quarry collapse kills seven in Guangxi Zhuang, China"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Pingle County quarry collapse<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-06\/20\/c_135450656.htm\">Xinhua reported on Monday<\/a> that a quarry collapse had trapped seven people in Pingle county, <span id=\"Zoom\">Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region<\/span> in China.\u00a0 They provided little detail other than to say that rescue operations were ongoing.\u00a0 However, CCTV has now posted a very high quality video of the site, and of the rescue operations, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qMFVI7JqLIg\">Youtube<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qMFVI7JqLIg?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the images this looks to be a classic rockslope failure caused by undercutting during the quarrying.\u00a0 This is a still from the video:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19021\" style=\"width: 647px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19021\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19021\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2016\/06\/16_06-China-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pingle County\" width=\"637\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2016\/06\/16_06-China-1.jpg 637w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2016\/06\/16_06-China-1-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19021\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pingle County rockslope collapse, via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qMFVI7JqLIg\">Youtube<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>I think that on the upper part of the scar the detachment may well be controlled by two large joints. This would explain the very hefty boulders in the rockfall deposit.\u00a0 Note also the very clear horizontal discontinuity running across the lower slope.\u00a0 The rockslope collapse has generated a deposit that is exceptionally coarse-grained:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19022\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19022\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19022\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2016\/06\/16_06-China-2-e1466578989108.jpg\" alt=\"Pingle County rockfall\" width=\"640\" height=\"419\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19022\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pingle County rockfall deposit via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qMFVI7JqLIg\">Youtube<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing rockfall activity, and the potentially unstable nature of the remaining rock mass, means that the rescue operations are extremely hazardous.\u00a0 Sadly I can think of no examples in which people have been successfully rescued from beneath a deposit of this type. I suspect there may be cases, but they are rare, and they will always require that the survivor was sheltered in some sort of structure.<\/p>\n<p>Once again the desperate need for improved quarry and mining safety in China has been highlighted.\u00a0 The toll from quarry landslides there remains fearsome.<\/p>\n<h5>Heavy rains across southern China<\/h5>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-06\/20\/c_135451436.htm\">Xinhua is also reporting<\/a> the terrible toll from the heavy rains that are currently affecting the southern part of China.\u00a0 Floods and landslides are <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-06\/20\/c_135451767.htm\">reported to have killed 22 people<\/a> to date, with another 20 missing.\u00a0 This includes a<a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2016-06\/21\/c_135455058.htm\"> substantial landslide in a railway construction site in Sichuan Province<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In Xingwen County, southwest China&#8217;s Sichuan province, five more bodies were found at a railway construction site, bringing the death toll from landslides in the county to seven.\u00a0 Following heavy rain, a landslide occurred around 3 a.m. Sunday that destroyed workers&#8217; dormitories. Three people were hospitalized, they remain under observation but are in a stable condition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday a landslide in Pingle County in Guangxi Zhuang in China buried seven workers at a stone quarry. Rescue operations are ongoing.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":19021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,881,469,959,471],"class_list":["post-19019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-china","tag-east-asia","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-quarry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}