{"id":24834,"date":"2017-07-24T07:21:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T07:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=24834"},"modified":"2017-07-31T18:39:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T18:39:26","slug":"larcha-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2017\/07\/24\/larcha-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Larcha: a landslide destroys a key bridge in northern Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"
Larcha: a landslide destroys a key bridge in northern Nepal<\/h5>\n

Larcha is\u00a0 the location of a key bridge of the Araniko Highway in northern Nepal.\u00a0 This road extends northwards from Kathmandu to Tatopani, a crossing point into Tibet.\u00a0 For many years this was the only road north into Tibet and on to China, and as such it was a key strategic highway.\u00a0 In recent years a second crossing point has been built, and the importance of the Araniko Highway has declined, not least because of the extensive damage caused to this area in the 2015 earthquake.\u00a0 This area of Sindhupalchok was devastated by landslides<\/a>, which of course reactivate with every monsoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several news reports this morning suggest that heavy rainfall yesterday (Sunday 23rd July) triggered multiple landslides along the Araniko Highway.\u00a0 At Larcha, a slide has destroyed the bridge that crosses the Bhotekoshi River. \u00a0 The most detailed report is in the Kathmandu Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

A motorable bridge over Bhote Koshi River along the Araniko Highway in Larcha, Sindhupalchok district collapsed on Sunday due to a landslide triggered by the incessant rain, blocking the only highway to Tatopani … According to a local eyewitness, Dupchhiring Sherpa, the landslide occurred with a loud explosion at around 8:30 last evening. \u201cThe loud noise of landslide followed a bright flash of lightning,\u201d he said, \u201cThe landmass fell on the middle of the bridge and blocked Bhotekoshi River for some time.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The same news report<\/a> has an image of the aftermath of the landslide:<\/div>\n

\n
\"Larcha\"

Kathmandu Post<\/a> image of the aftermath of the landslide at Larcha in Nepal.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

For reference, this is what the bridge looked like prior to the earthquake (image via Nirmal Raj Joshi<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Larcha\"

The bridge at Larcha in northern Nepal, destroyed yesterday in a landslide, via Nirmal Raj Joshi<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

This area was extensively studied by Katie Oven in the PhD that I supervised.\u00a0 The thesis is online<\/a> (though the site was down as I wrote this).\u00a0 Katie noted that Larcha has suffered serious landslides in the past, most notably a serious debris flow in 1996 that killed over 50 people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday 23rd July 2017 a landslide destroyed the bridge over the Bhotekoshi river at Larcha in Nepal, severing the Araniko Highway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":24844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[469,959,66,72],"class_list":["post-24834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-nepal","tag-south-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24834","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=24834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}