Two young children were killed on Wednesday, and another was seriously injured, when a mudslide struck a school trip collecting fossils<\/a> in Lilydale Regional Park.\u00a0 It is a little unclear as to exactly what happened, but it appears that the collapse was triggered by heavy rainfall.\u00a0 To lose young children in such circumstances is desperately sad; one can only imagine the shear sense of panic amongst the teachers and children after the event.\u00a0 Collecting fossils is a really important activity that must continue.\u00a0 However, exposure of fossils that can be collected requires both soft rocks and active erosion, which means that care must be taken with regard to landslides, especially during heavy and\/or prolonged rainfall.<\/p>\n 2. The report on the Johnson’s Landing landslide in BC<\/strong><\/p>\n On 12th July 2012 a landslide struck the small community of Johnsons Landing in BC, Canada<\/a>.\u00a0 I covered the landslide extensively at the time<\/a> (including this memorable video<\/a>) – it was an unusually large and rapid slide that engulfed the houses below, killing four people:<\/p>\n BC Government image<\/p><\/div>\n ..<\/p>\n The full report is available here<\/a> – I shall blog again on this in due course – and there is a nice news report about it here<\/a>.\u00a0 The salient points are:<\/p>\n 3. The Bingham Canyon landslide impacts continue<\/strong><\/p>\n The enormous cost of the Bingham Canyon landslide continue to be felt.\u00a0 Kennecott Utah Copper<\/a>, the mine operators, have today released information about the “initial workforce implications” of the landslide, which make grim reading.\u00a0 About 100 employees have lost their jobs, with the company warning that more redundancies will follow over the next month.<\/p>\n 4. Landslides and the Day of Judgement<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Arab News<\/a>, one sign that the Day of Judgement is nigh is that three landslides will strike.\u00a0 In the words of the article<\/a>:<\/p>\n One will occur in the East, one in the West and one in the Arabian Peninsula. Not much further information has been given concerning these events\u2014and therefore not much can be added. However, the well-known Hadith exegete Ibn Hajar does note that landslides are a well-known occurrence and have occurred often. Therefore, he says, it is likely that the nature of these three landslides which will occur shortly before the Day of Judgment will be of a much greater magnitude and severity, setting them apart from what occurs customarily in this world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Please be assured that I will keep readers posted should such events occur.<\/p>\n 5. Landslides in Hong Kong during heavy rainfall<\/strong><\/p>\n During heavy rainfall early on Wednesday morning, there were 19 reported minor landslides in Hong Kong<\/a>:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2013\/05\/13_05-Johnsons-Landing-photo.jpg\" "\\"13_05")
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