{"id":33896,"date":"2020-05-13T05:42:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T05:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=33896"},"modified":"2020-05-13T05:42:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T05:42:28","slug":"2019-fatal-landslides-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/05\/13\/2019-fatal-landslides-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A map of 2019 fatal landslides"},"content":{"rendered":"

A map of 2019 fatal landslides<\/h4>\n

One of my tasks during lock down has been to geolocate the 2019 fatal landslides<\/a>.\u00a0 This is a non-trivial job given the number of events, and in many cases the ambiguity in terms of the reported locations in the news media.\u00a0 But it does allow the global and regional maps to be compiled.<\/p>\n

So here is the map of the 2019 fatal landslides<\/a>, as recorded in my fatal landslide database<\/a>:-<\/p>\n

\"2019

The 2019 fatal landslides map.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

Every dot represents a landslide that killed at least one person.\u00a0 All fatal landslides are depicted, including those triggered by rainfall, seismic activity, mining and construction.\u00a0 I have made this map available online<\/a>. Please be careful with over-interpreting the locations when zoomed in.\u00a0 In many cases it is only possible to map the landslides within a few kilometres, so very detailed maps have low reliability.<\/p>\n

For those who read my blog regularly, or who have read my papers, there is much about this map that is familiar<\/a> – the huge concentration in Asia, and the clusters in Brazil and Colombia for example.\u00a0 The abnormal element in 2019 is the high concentration in East Africa.\u00a0 I have always recorded fatal landslides in this area, but 2019 saw far more than is usual.\u00a0 Unfortunately 2020 is continuing that pattern<\/a>, driven once again by abnormally heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to examine the 2019 fatal landslides in South Asia, which remains the global hotspot for these events:-<\/p>\n

\"2019

The 2019 fatal landslides map for South Asia.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The concentration of landslides along the southern edge of the Himalayas is clear, though Pakistan, India Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.\u00a0 There was a particularly large number in northeast Pakistan and in the Kashmir area of India, as well as the smaller concentration in the southwest of India.\u00a0 We are about to enter the 2020 summer monsoon season in South Asia, with forecasts of heavy rainfall in for example Sri Lanka<\/a>.\u00a0 The pattern of monsoon induced disasters in 2020 is going to be complex, not least because of increased vulnerability as a result of Covid-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have been pondering whether to post the full 2019 dataset online as a Google Sheet, in order to make the information available more widely and to allow people to provide better information.\u00a0 If you would find this useful then please let me know.<\/p>\n

On reflection 1<\/h4>\n

National Geographic has a very interesting article<\/a> about the discovery of the remains of people killed by a tsunami about 1000 years ago in Tanzania in East Africa. It is likely that this tsunami was triggered by a distant large earthquake.\u00a0 The underpinning research has been published in Geology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On reflection 2<\/h4>\n

The Standard reports that another large landslide has occurred in West Pokot<\/a>, Kenya, close to the landslides last month that caused extensive damage<\/a>.\u00a0 This most recent event, at Solion in Muino, has rendered 40 families homeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have now been able to generate the global map of 2019 fatal landslides. This shows an unusual cluster of landslides in East Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":33901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[29127,45,73,469,353],"class_list":["post-33896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-database-2","tag-29127","tag-database","tag-fatal-landslides","tag-featured","tag-map"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33896","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=33896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}