{"id":35412,"date":"2020-11-03T07:41:48","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=35412"},"modified":"2020-11-03T19:59:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T19:59:04","slug":"williams-lake-1-million-cubic-metre-damaging-landslide-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/11\/03\/williams-lake-1-million-cubic-metre-damaging-landslide-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams Lake: 1 million cubic metre, damaging landslide in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams Lake: 1 million cubic metre, damaging landslide in Canada<\/h4>\n

With thanks to loyal readers Charles by email and Dr Drew Brayshaw (@DrewBrayshaw<\/a>) via Twitter:<\/a> a large landslide occurred on 31 October 2020 in an industrial area on the outskirts of Williams Lake in British Columbia in Canada<\/a> in the last few days.\u00a0 There are few decent pictures that capture the whole of the landslide; the best one I can find is this one, taken by Scott Nelson and published by CBC<\/a>:-<\/p>\n

\"Williams

A drone image of the landslide at Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Image collected by Scott Nelson and published by CBC<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Williams Lake Tribune has a short video of operations at the foot of the slope<\/a> to keep the channel open. The area has been suffering from heavy rainfall<\/a>, and thus presumably elevated river levels, in recent days, and indeed there are reports of other (smaller) landslides in the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Google Earth imagery of this area suggests that this is not the first landslide on this slope – and of course the image above suggests that future failures may occur too (but with no certainty on timing):-<\/p>\n

\"Williams

Google Earth image of the site of the landslide at Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

There is a very nice geological map of the area on the BC Ministry of the Environment website<\/a>, which suggests that this landslide has occurred in glacial deposits.\u00a0 That looks right to me.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Quickslide 1: Deforestation, construction to blame for central Vietnam landslides<\/h4>\n

VNExpress has a nice article about the underlying causes<\/a> of the recent landslides in Vietnam<\/a>.\u00a0 It concludes that deforestation and construction may be important factors:<\/p>\n

Trinh Xuan Hoa, deputy head of the Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, said deforestation and construction, among other factors, were to blame for triggering landslides in central Vietnam.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Human activities including deforestation and road construction, etc. have hastened geological changes in the area. Leveling mountains and destroying taluses for construction destabilize the terrain, create steeper slopes and sacrifice local vegetation. This fuels the risk of erosion and landslides,” he said, adding erosion occurred mainly on mountain slopes, in residential areas or along roads and other man-made structures.<\/em><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Quickslide 2: The reopening of the Aberdeen to Dundee railway line<\/h4>\n

Three months after the fatal, landslip induced crash at Stonehaven on the Aberdeen to Dundee railway line<\/a>, the track reopens today<\/a>.\u00a0 The amount of work needed to recover the train and repair the line has been very extensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Williams Lake: On 31st October 2020 a 1 million cubic metre landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall, occurred in British Columbia, Canada <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":35415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[840,4,469,16313,959],"class_list":["post-35412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-featured","tag-glacial","tag-landslide-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35412","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=35412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}