{"id":32674,"date":"2019-12-12T07:38:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T07:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=32674"},"modified":"2019-12-12T07:38:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T07:38:17","slug":"kumtor-gold-mine-landslide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2019\/12\/12\/kumtor-gold-mine-landslide\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kumtor gold mine landslide: high resolution Planet Labs images"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kumtor gold mine landslide: high resolution Planet Labs images<\/h4>\n

Last week I highlighted the enormous landslide<\/a> at the Kumtor Gold Mine on 1st December 2019<\/a>.\u00a0 This was the latest in a series of failures at this very high altitude mine in Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0 Two employees from the mine were killed in the landslide.\u00a0 The best image that I have found of this landslide was published by 24.kg<\/a>, which shows a view from the toe:-<\/p>\n

\"The

An oblique view of the Kumtor gold mine landslide in Kyrgyzstan. Image from 24.kg.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The giant scale of this landslide is clear from the above image, as is the enormous challenges posed by the recovery operations for the victims. The excavations for this work can be seen on the right side of the landslide toe.<\/p>\n

Planet Labs<\/a> have captured high resolution images of this landslide using their SkySat instrument.\u00a0 As usual they are remarkable.\u00a0 This is the site prior to the failure:-<\/p>\n

\"Planet

Planet Labs SkySat image<\/a> of the site of Kumtor gold mine landslide.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

Note the fresh tipping activity on the left side of the image.\u00a0 There is some possible evidence of tension cracks at the toe of the slide on the right side of the image.<\/p>\n

This is the image after the failure:-<\/p>\n

\"Planet

Planet Labs SkySat image<\/a> of the Kumtor gold mine landslide.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The image shows the full length of the landslide from the rear scarp on the left to the toe on the right, The excavations for the rescue operations can be seen near to the toe.\u00a0 The crown of the landslide has cut through the area of recent tipping.\u00a0 A huge mass has failed, and there is extensive evidence of tensional cracking through the landslide body. On the right side of the landslide mass it appears that a facility of some sort has been partially buried.<\/p>\n

This is one of the largest mining landslides of recent years.\u00a0 There has long been deep concern about landslides at the Kumtor gold mine.\u00a0 This is unlikely to be the last we hear on the topic.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/h4>\n

Planet Team (2019). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth<\/a>. San Francisco, CA. https:\/\/www.planet.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planet Labs have captured wonderful before and after SkySat images of the enormous Kumtor gold mine landslide in Kyrgyzstan last week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":32682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27393],"tags":[792,469,337,959,299,205],"class_list":["post-32674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mining","tag-central-asia","tag-featured","tag-kyrgyzstan","tag-landslide-report","tag-mine","tag-mining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32674","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=32674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}