{"id":34660,"date":"2020-07-21T08:19:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T08:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=34660"},"modified":"2020-07-21T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T14:31:00","slug":"rio-coca-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/07\/21\/rio-coca-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Coca: a valley-blocking landslide in Ecuador caught on video"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Rio Coca: a valley-blocking landslide in Ecuador caught on video<\/h4>\n<p>On 18 July 2020 a substantial landslide occurred on the Rio Coca in <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?s=ecuador&amp;submit.x=0&amp;submit.y=0&amp;mswhere=blog\">Ecuador<\/a>, blocking the river.&nbsp; The landslide occurred between the Montana and Marker river junctions, is located in <span class=\"tlid-translation translation\" lang=\"en\">El Chaco canton in Orellana.&nbsp; The image below, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eluniverso.com\/noticias\/2020\/07\/19\/nota\/7912401\/represamiento-deslizamiento-tierras-rio-coca-julio-2020\">published in El Universo<\/a>, shows the aftermath of the landslide:-<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34663\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34663\" class=\" wp-image-34663\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/07\/20_07-Rio-Coca-1.jpg\" alt=\"Rio Coca\" width=\"799\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/07\/20_07-Rio-Coca-1.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/07\/20_07-Rio-Coca-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/07\/20_07-Rio-Coca-1-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/07\/20_07-Rio-Coca-1-768x575.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-34663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The landslide on the Rio Coca in Ecuador. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eluniverso.com\/noticias\/2020\/07\/19\/nota\/7912401\/represamiento-deslizamiento-tierras-rio-coca-julio-2020\">Image published in El Universo<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The landslide has occurred on the outside of the river bend &#8211; a classic location for undercutting of the river to create instability &#8211; in weak (possibly volcanic) deposits.<\/p>\n<p>This landslide is remarkable because both the initial failure and the breach event have been caught on video.&nbsp; This is the video, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2eLES6Kih6Q\">posted on Youtube<\/a>, showing the failure:-<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DESLIZAMIENTO DEL R\u00cdO COCA\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2eLES6Kih6Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>I am not sure as to the circumstances in which this video was captured, but am impressed by the coolness of the people at the site.&nbsp; The video is interesting in that it captures the precursory deformation of the landslide block.<\/p>\n<p>A video of the breach of the landslide dam on the Rio Coca has also been collected and has been<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPECIGEST\/status\/1284849938858479616?s=20\"> posted to Twitter<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPECIGEST\/status\/1284849938858479616?s=20<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pgY-Xw9h9uo\">a video has also been posted to Youtube<\/a> that shows the breach event underway:-<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"#naturaleza\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pgY-Xw9h9uo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Reports suggest that the landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall and that the breach occurred about four hours after the initial failure.&nbsp; Whilst there is considerable erosion downstream, the nearest community on the Rio Coca was located about 50 km downstream, so little damage occurred.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<h4>Quickslide 1: Another valley-blocking landslide<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2020-07\/21\/c_139228978.htm\">Xinhua reports that a landslide has blocked a valley on the Qingjiang River<\/a>, a tributary of Yangtze River, in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei, China.&nbsp; Evacuations are underway.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<h4>Quickslide 2: Continued landslide damage in Nepal<\/h4>\n<p>Heavy rainfall associated with the monsoon continues to cause loss of life and extensive damage across Nepal.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/english.onlinekhabar.com\/efforts-underway-to-reopen-landslide-blocked-roads.html\">Many roads are blocked by landslides<\/a> and, <a href=\"http:\/\/drrportal.gov.np\/\">according to the DRR portal<\/a>, at least 117 lives have been lost to landslides since the beginning of June.&nbsp; There is increasing awareness in Nepal that <a href=\"https:\/\/kathmandupost.com\/gandaki-province\/2020\/07\/20\/haphazard-construction-of-rural-roads-causing-landslides\">poor quality road construction is a major factor behind these landslides<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11069-006-9100-3\">an issue that we highlighted in a paper (Petley et al. 2007) 13 years ago<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<p><em>It is concluded that a major component of the generally upward trend in landslide impact probably results from the rural road-building programme, and its attendant changes to physical and natural systems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Petley, D.N., Hearn, G.J., Hart, A. <i>et al.<\/i> 2007. <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11069-006-9100-3\">Trends in landslide occurrence in Nepal<\/a>. <i>Natural Hazards<\/i> <b>43, <\/b>23\u201344 . https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11069-006-9100-3<\/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 18 July 2020 a landslide occurred on the Rio Coca in Ecuador, blocking the river. Both the initial failure and the breach were captured on video.<!-- 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":34663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[464,469,15,959,963,122],"class_list":["post-34660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-ecuador","tag-featured","tag-landslide-dam","tag-landslide-report","tag-landslide-video","tag-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34660","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=34660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}