{"id":35562,"date":"2020-11-16T08:38:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T08:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=35562"},"modified":"2020-11-16T08:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T08:38:39","slug":"meenbog-peat-slide-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/11\/16\/meenbog-peat-slide-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meenbog peat slide in the Republic of Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>The Meenbog peat slide in the Republic of Ireland<\/h4>\n<p>There was a great deal of interest over the weekend in a peat slide that was caught on video at Meenbog in the Republic of Ireland. The landslide occurred on 13 November 2020.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E8iOMrIhbgU\">This is the video on Youtube<\/a>:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peat slippage near meenbog wind farm in Donegal\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E8iOMrIhbgU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The video is remarkable, showing rafts of bog with intact and upright trees sliding along a low angle slope.\u00a0 The peat blog landslide is large &#8211; as is so often the case with landslides in peat, the landslide has runout a very long distance, all the way to the major watercourse.\u00a0 There is an excellent drone video of the landslide track, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xbQe55YnW5g\">also on Youtube<\/a>:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Meenbog Peet Bog Slide\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xbQe55YnW5g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The image below, a still from the video above, captures the upper part of the landslide:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35569\" style=\"width: 808px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35569\" class=\" wp-image-35569\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/11\/20_11-peat-slide-1.jpg\" alt=\"Meenbog peat landslide\" width=\"798\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/11\/20_11-peat-slide-1.jpg 943w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/11\/20_11-peat-slide-1-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2020\/11\/20_11-peat-slide-1-768x483.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-35569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The upper part of the Meenbog peat landslide in the Republic of Ireland. Image captured from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xbQe55YnW5g\">a video posted to Youtube<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The upper portion of the Meenbog peat landslide is an extensional zone, almost certainly caused by retrogression (uphill expansion) of the slide after the initial failure.\u00a0 It is possible that failure started towards the downslope end of this bowl.\u00a0 It is unlikely to be a coincidence that a ditch crosses the slope at this point.\u00a0 Downslope from the landslide becomes a channelised flow.<\/p>\n<p>The landslide has occurred in an area in which construction is underway for the Meenbog wind farm, a project that has been controversial.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/republicofirelandnews\/2020\/11\/16\/news\/concerns-over-massive-peat-slide-at-co-donegal-bog-2130570\/\">According to the Irish News<\/a>, &#8220;<em>The wind farm is owned by global retail giant Amazon, which aims to have the site operational by 2022<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?s=peat&amp;submit.x=0&amp;submit.y=0&amp;mswhere=blog\">I have written about peat landslides previously<\/a>, most notably in relation to the broadly similar <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/07\/03\/dawn-of-hope-peat-slide-2\/\">Dawn of Hope peat landslide earlier this year<\/a>.\u00a0 Peat is a very strange geotechnical material, with very low density, low compressive strength but some strength in tension due to the fibrous nature of the material (which is how it can generate the rafts seen on low angled slopes).\u00a0 It generally has an exceptionally high water content.\u00a0 Once disturbed it has a very low shear strength, allowing long runout landslides to develop.\u00a0 Especial care is needed to avoid instability in areas of blanket peat coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The trees involved are Sitka spruce.\u00a0 According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/database\/feis\/plants\/tree\/picsit\/all.html\">USDA Forest Service<\/a>, these trees have roots systems that are <em>&#8220;<\/em><span class=\"ILfuVd\"><span class=\"hgKElc\"><em>shallow and platelike with long lateral roots with few branchings. On deep well-drained soils the root system may reach depths of 6.5 feet (2 m), especially on alluvial soils. Root grafting often occurs between roots of the same tree and adjacent trees&#8221;<\/em>.\u00a0 This explains how trees can be involved in the rafts of the peat slide.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The threat of peat slides from wind farms is well-established &#8211; indeed in 2003 a major peat slide was triggered by the construction of a wind farm in Derrybrien.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.galwaydaily.com\/news\/ireland-pays-eu-e5-million-fine-over-derrybrien-wind-farm\/\">As the Galway Daily notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The Irish State was found to be in breach of environmental safeguards during the construction phase of the project.\u00a0 <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1614615956291173\" data-ad-slot=\"8195725967\" data-adsbygoogle-status=\"done\"><\/ins>On top of the \u20ac5 million lump sum which the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government has confirmed as paid over, Ireland still faces daily fines of \u20ac15,000 until the situation is rectified.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I find it hard to understand how this can happen again.<\/p>\n<h4>.<\/h4>\n<h4>Quickslide 1: Hurricane Iota is heading for Central America<\/h4>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n\">\n<div id=\"tweet-text\" class=\"css-901oao r-hkyrab r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">Over the last few hours Hurricane Iota <\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> has intensified rapidly to a category 4 storm.\u00a0 It will make landfall in Nicaragua and Honduras in the next 24 hours<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">.\u00a0 A major disaster seems inevitable.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\" lang=\"en\">.<\/div>\n<h4>Quickslide 2: The anticipated landslide in West Dorset occurred on 15 November<\/h4>\n<p dir=\"auto\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2020\/11\/13\/quang-nam-province\/\">On Friday in the Quickslide section I highlighted that a slope failure was developing near to West Bay in Dorset<\/a>.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.somersetlive.co.uk\/news\/somerset-news\/massive-landslide-sends-cliff-crashing-4703173\">This slope failed in the early morning of 15 November 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/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>The 13 November 2020 Meenbog peat slide in the Republic of Ireland, which was caught on a stunning video. Reports suggest that the landslide is associated with a wind farm under construction, owned by Amazon.  <!-- 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":35569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30326,469,303,959,963,1145],"class_list":["post-35562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bog","tag-featured","tag-ireland","tag-landslide-report","tag-landslide-video","tag-peat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35562","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=35562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}