{"id":5070,"date":"2012-08-01T07:34:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T07:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=5070"},"modified":"2012-08-01T07:34:18","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T07:34:18","slug":"28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/08\/01\/28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"28 killed in another mining landslide in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The list of mining-related landslides in China unfortunately became longer yesterday, with yet another fatal landslide at an iron ore mine.\u00a0 This time the failure occurred in <span id=\"Zoom\"> Araltobe, Xinyuan County in Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili,<\/span> which is in <span id=\"Zoom\">Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region<\/span>.\u00a0 The landslide occurred at lunchtime local time yesterday, burying a building occupied by 28 people.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/china\/2012-08\/01\/c_131753282.htm\">To date 18 bodies have been recovered<\/a>, but there seems to be little hope of a positive outcome for the rest.<\/p>\n<p>This is a large landslide &#8211; estimated to be a million cubic metres in volume, <span id=\"Zoom\">2,000 m in length, 50 m wide and with a depth of 6 m.\u00a0 There is a high quality image gallery of the site here, but none of the pictures provide an overview of the landslide.\u00a0 The one that best indicates wha<\/span>t happened is this one, but even that is less than clear:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/08\/01\/28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china\/12_07-iron-ore-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5071\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5071\" title=\"12_07 Iron Ore 1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_07-Iron-Ore-1-e1343804892409.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" \/><\/a>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/geonames.nga.mil\/ggmaviewer\/\">Geonames search engine<\/a>, Araltobe is at 43.4 N, 83.7 E.\u00a0 The only obvious quarry that I can find in the Google Earth imagery of this area is this one:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/08\/01\/28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china\/12_07-iron-ore-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5072\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5072\" title=\"12_07 Iron Ore 2\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_07-Iron-Ore-2-e1343805555666.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"439\" \/><\/a>But the imagery is nine years old and there are a couple of other sites in the area that look like they were about to be developed as a quarry.<\/p>\n<p>The incidence large-scale mine-related landslides in China is remarkably high.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2011\/07\/29\/china-has-suffered-another-tailings-dam-failure\/\">Here is another example from just a year ago<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2009\/12\/13\/poor-mining-management-was-the-cause-of-the-sigou-village-landslide-in-china\/\">one from 2009<\/a>.\u00a0 There have been many others.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, out in there Pacific there are now two intense typhoons, both on tracks that will make landfall in China over the next few days.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jma.go.jp\/en\/radnowc\/\">Japan Meteorological Agency<\/a> has this amazing radar image that captures them both:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/08\/01\/28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china\/12_08-typhoons-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5073\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5073\" title=\"12_08 typhoons 1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-typhoons-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-typhoons-1.png 596w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-typhoons-1-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a>The one to the south, just east of Taiwan, is the source of real concern at the moment.\u00a0 This typhoon, called Saola, is moving very slowly.\u00a0 Whilst this is good for wind damage, it is exactly the scenario that leads to very high rainfall totals, which in turn leads to landslides and floods.\u00a0 It is currently forecast to cross the northern side of Taiwan in two days time, and then to landfall in China a day later.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cwb.gov.tw\/V7e\/observe\/rainfall\/hk.htm?\"> This has brought over 300 mm of rainfall to parts of Taiwan already today<\/a>, on top of similar amounts yesterday:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/08\/01\/28-killed-in-another-mining-landslide-in-china\/12_08-taiwan-rainfall\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5074\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5074\" title=\"12_08 Taiwan rainfall\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-Taiwan-rainfall.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-Taiwan-rainfall.jpg 400w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-Taiwan-rainfall-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/08\/12_08-Taiwan-rainfall-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>Expect similar, or possibly higher, totals over the next couple of days.\u00a0 Landslides and floods seem inevitable.<\/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>News of a mining related landslide in China that killed 28 yesterday, and the possibility of typhoon induced landslides in China and Taiwan over the next few days<!-- 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":5071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,469,299,205,81,975],"class_list":["post-5070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-china","tag-featured","tag-mine","tag-mining","tag-taiwan","tag-typhoon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070","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=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}