{"id":29967,"date":"2019-02-01T19:41:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T19:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=29967"},"modified":"2019-02-04T15:22:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T15:22:56","slug":"brumadinho-tailings-dam-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2019\/02\/01\/brumadinho-tailings-dam-video\/","title":{"rendered":"First thoughts on the Brumadinho dam collapse video"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>First thoughts on the Brumadinho tailings dam collapse video<\/h4>\n<p>The video that has emerged today in Brazil showing in high resolution the collapse the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2019\/02\/01\/brumadinho-disaster-1\/\">Brumadinho tailings dam<\/a> is apparently genuine, no matter how sensational this might seem.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SZ8ma4XOgow\">The video is on Youtube, and is absolutely amazing<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SZ8ma4XOgow\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Let me include three stills from this video that illustrate what appears to have happened.&nbsp; The first shows the very start of the failure process At the crest of the dam active deformation can be seen &#8211; the dark line is a scarp forming as the mass moves downwards.&nbsp; The toe is probably bulging, but this is not really clear:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29979\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29979\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29979\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2019\/02\/19_02-Brazil-3-e1549048828925.jpg\" alt=\"Brumadinho tailings dam\" width=\"640\" height=\"361\"\/><p id=\"caption-attachment-29979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inititiation of failure at the Brumadinho tailings dam. Still from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SZ8ma4XOgow\">Youtube video.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The second shows the failure fully developed.&nbsp; The slope is going through a massive rotational failure that extends across the full width and involves the full height of the dam:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29974\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29974\" class=\"wp-image-29974\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2019\/02\/19_02-Brazil-1.jpg\" alt=\"Brumadinho tailings dam\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2019\/02\/19_02-Brazil-1.jpg 760w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2019\/02\/19_02-Brazil-1-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-29974\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The full development of failure at the Brumadinho tailings dam. Still from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SZ8ma4XOgow\">Youtube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<dd>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The front of the mass is starting to break up.&nbsp; The third shows the transition to a high velocity flow:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29977\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29977\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29977\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2019\/02\/19_02-Brazil-2-e1549049169101.jpg\" alt=\"Brumadinho tailings dam\" width=\"640\" height=\"354\"\/><p id=\"caption-attachment-29977\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The development of failure and transition to a flow at the Brumadinho tailings dam. Still from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SZ8ma4XOgow\">Youtube video<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Further rotational slips are occurring on the back scarp, but the front of the flow is travelling very rapidly.&nbsp; To me this look to have the characteristics of a debris avalanche rather than a debris flow &#8211; the presence of so much dust suggests that this frontal portion might not be saturated.&nbsp; But I would be interested in other views.<\/p>\n<p>The remarkable thing here is that the mass failed as a single landslide involving the full width and full height.&nbsp; There is now sense of a small slip destabilising the mass, or of a series of events, or of retrogression.&nbsp; I find this surprising.<\/p>\n<p>There is also footage now of the flow downstream.&nbsp; That is also deeply alarming:-<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dJCvqb5Mxq4\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>I really hope that this video will bring home the need for proper tailings management, and thus worldwide change.&nbsp; There can be no better illustration of just how terrifying and deadly these failures can be.<\/dd>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My initial thoughts on the Brumadinho tailings dam collapse video, which has emerged today. The video shows a catastrophic rotational landslide and flow<!-- 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":29977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1],"tags":[102,469,299,205,230,35],"class_list":["post-29967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-video","category-uncategorized","tag-brazil","tag-featured","tag-mine","tag-mining","tag-tailings","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29967","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=29967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}