{"id":5419,"date":"2012-11-06T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T00:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=5419"},"modified":"2012-11-05T16:52:07","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T16:52:07","slug":"the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"The most beautiful landslide on Earth? The Quiraing landslide on the Isle of Skye, Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most picturesque landslides on the earth is located at Quiraing (sometimes spelt Quirang) on the Isle of Skye in north-west Scotland.\u00a0 This is a very large, complex landslide complex on the Trotternish Range on the northern side of the Isle of Skye:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland\/12_11-quirang-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5420\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5420\" title=\"12_11 Quirang 1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-1-e1352102837565.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"439\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The landslide complex itself is both very large and very complex, as the Google Earth imagery shows:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland\/12_11-quirang-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5423\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5423\" title=\"12_11 Quirang 2\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-2-e1352132491696.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"439\" \/><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>These are the largest landslides in the UK, covering an area of at least 8.5 square kilometres.\u00a0 This is a classic geologically-controlled landslide system, consisting of thick basalt layers overlying weak Jurassic sediments.\u00a0 The weight of the basaltic rocks is driving failure in the Jurassic sediments, allowing landslides to develop on a very large-scale.\u00a0 Movements continue today, albeit at a fairly low rate.<\/p>\n<p>Where this landslide comes into its own in terms of majestic beauty &#8211; indeed, I would suggest that this is perhaps the most beautiful landslide system on Earth.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t reproduce it here, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/clubfotoeu\/7687035302\/\">take a look at this Flickr photo of the landslide<\/a> &#8211; see what I mean?\u00a0 Or take a look at this <a href=\"http:\/\/flickrhivemind.net\/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?search_type=Tags&amp;photo_number=50&amp;photo_type=250&amp;noform=t&amp;quicksearch=1&amp;sort=Interestingness&amp;textinput=quirang&amp;.submit=Search+Tags\">Flickr archive of images from the landslide complex<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0 These two aren&#8217;t bad either:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.duncanshawimages.com\/photo_1860784.html\">Duncan Shaw:<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5424\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland\/12_11-quirang-23\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5424\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5424\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5424\" title=\"12_11 Quirang 23\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-23.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-23.jpg 580w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-23-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5424\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">http:\/\/www.duncanshawimages.com\/photo_1860784.html<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lukasspieker.com\/blog\/4954\/isle-of-skye\/\"> Lukas Spieker<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5426\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2012\/11\/06\/the-most-beautiful-landslide-on-earth-the-quiraing-landslide-on-the-isle-of-skye-scotland\/isle-of-skye-quiraing\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5426\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5426\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5426\" title=\"Isle of Skye, Quiraing\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2012\/11\/12_11-Quirang-6-e1352134031696.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5426\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">http:\/\/www.lukasspieker.com\/blog\/4954\/isle-of-skye\/<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>It is well worth a visit if you are ever in Scotland &#8211;\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/skye\/quiraing.shtml\">Walk Highlands has a walking tour of the landslide complex<\/a>.<\/p>\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>A brief description of one of the most beautiful landslides on Earth &#8211; the Quiraing (Quirang) on Skye in north-western Scotland.<!-- 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":5424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,1],"tags":[469,959,228,133,667],"class_list":["post-5419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-images","category-uncategorized","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419","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=5419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}