Landslides

[Robyn Appleton]

"The causes of landslides are not a mystery to mankind. Layers of rock and soil such that rain running along a clay or rock layer can create a slippery surface for the weight of the layers above it is a common cause. A rock jumble from previous mountain building, broken or fractured rock easily dislodged. We have stated that the earthquakes man experiences between the periodic passages of Planet X can be considered aftershocks from the last passage, and this is true of landslides also. Mountain building rumples the landscape, so the land is not flat but has steep ravines and hill sides. Older mountain ranges are recognized for their rounded or smoothed appearance, because of frequent landslides distributing the rubble.

"As we approach another passage, another Pole Shift, the pace of landslides has picked up. Why would this be? Plates under pressure will put pressure on regions that contain rumpled hillsides and deep ravines, as these give more readily than strictly flat land, thus act as a weak link. In addition, due to the wobble, the weather has gotten more extreme, with drought and deluge increasing in extremes. Dry ground, suddenly flooded with rainwater needing to seek its level as runoff, will create internal water slides between the rock and soil layers that constitute the rumpled hillsides. Is there an early warning system that mankind could use? The trembles that soil about to slide emits could be detected, yes. These are not earthquakes, and have their own frequency. "

ZetaTalk Chat Q&A: March 22, 2014

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.eturbonews.com/46293/16-feared-dead-swat-valley-landslide

16 feared dead in Swat valley landslide

Image via theguardian.com

May 28, 2014

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Sixteen people, including women and children, are feared dead in a road accident in the Swat valley near Utrot.

According to initial reports that reached Islamabad, a truck carrying three families who were en route from Punjab to Utror when the truck skidded into the Swat river near Utrot due to land sliding.

The Swat valley is located close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. With high mountains, green meadows, and clear lakes, it is a place of great natural beauty and is popular with tourists, being referred to as "the Switzerland of the region.”

[Andrey Eroshin]

19.05.14. Another landslide in Afghanistan, province Baghlan
http://www.khabarafghan.com/%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%B4_%D8%B2%D9%85%D...

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...

[Andrey Eroshin]

05.05.14. There is some evidence that the is not the only significant landslide in Afghanistan in the last few days. Bilal Sarwary tweeted this image, from Mohammad Salem Wahdat, of another site, in Rustaq, Takhar, Afghanistan.
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/05/05/ab-barak-1/

[Howard]

Three missing in 'unbelievably big' mudslide in Colorado (May 25)

Rescue teams are searching for three people reported missing after a large mudslide struck Sunday evening in western Colorado’s Mesa County that is estimated at 2 miles wide, 4 miles long and 250 feet deep.

The slide hit in a remote area near the town of Collbran, about 40 miles east of Grand Junction.

The area has not seen substantial rainfall but what little rain did fall on Sunday, and earlier this month, is believed to have contributed to the slide. While no damage was reported to any structures or roads, gas wells in the area were shut off, Weather.com reported.

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“Nearby Grand Junction did pick up 0.42 inches of rain Sunday,” Jon Erdman, a meteorologist at Weather.com, said. “Another 1.05 inches of rain fell from May 10 to May 12. Higher totals atop Grand Mesa likely contributed to the slide.”

Rescuers raced to the scene when it was reported around 6 p.m MDT, but eased operations after nightfall, Mesa County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lisa McCammon said.

There’s 'not a lot of activity tonight,' she said. The 'slide area is very unstable.' She said a daylight search was safer.

The department estimated the slide is about 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and about 250 feet deep in many places. An entire ridge was believed to have been sliding for most of the day

'This slide is unbelievably big,' Mesa County Lt. Phil Stratton said.

The sheriff’s office said that the person who reported the slide at about 6:15 p.m. 'described hearing a noise that sounded much like a freight train.'

"The slide came down with so much force and velocity that it came to a hill and went up and over a hill and then came back down -- a significant hill. So the power behind it was remarkable," the sheriff said.

The missing men, a county road worker, his son and another man went to check on damage Sunday from an initial slide near the edge of Grand Mesa, one of the world’s largest flat-topped mountains, after a rancher reported that his irrigation ditch had stopped flowing, Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said.

Hilkey said no signs of the men or their truck have been found. The three missing people have been identified as 46-year-old Wes Hawkins, 53-year-old Clancy Nichols and his son 24-year-old son, Danny.

“Everyone on this mountain is praying for a miracle right now,” he said.

The search near the small town of Collbran has been hampered because only the lower third of the slide is stable. Even at the edges, the mud is 20 to 30 feet deep. It’s believed to be several hundred feet deep in some places.

Bill Clark, a cousin of one of the missing men, visited the canyon where the slide struck and said it was completely filled with mud. He said the slide struck with so much force that some also spilled over into the neighbouring draw.

“I’ve never seen so much earth move like that in my life,” he said.

From a distance of about 10 miles, the slide looked like a funnel, narrowing into a culvert below. It cut a giant channel through trees. The creek that once gradually flowed down the ridge now spurted down like a waterfall. Roads in the area, where some cattle grazed, were muddy from rain.

“How in the devil could this happen?” said Collbran resident Lloyd Power, gazing out at the slide.

He said residents were praying for the missing. “That’s all we can do,” Power said.

A unified incident command has been established between Plateau Valley Fire Department and the Mesa sheriff, to handle the slide and search for the people possibly caught in it.

Roadblocks have been set up to keep people from the rural area. Conditions are described as “very unstable” by authorities.

Sources

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2639364/Three-missing-4-mil...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2639364/Three-missing-unbel...

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/26/three-people-missing-in-6-km-l...

http://www.680news.com/2014/05/26/colorado-mudslide-still-unstable-...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/26/us/colorado-mudslide/index.html?hpt=h...

http://www.ibtimes.com/colorado-mudslide-video-footage-shows-devast...

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.3news.co.nz/Landslide-closes-highway-near-Arthurs-Pass/t...

Landslide closes highway near Arthur's Pass

Friday 23 May 2014 2:51p.m.

A section of State Highway 73 between Arthur's Pass and Otira is closed after what the New Zealand Transport Association (NZTA) has called a "massive slip".

NZTA's senior network manager Mark Pinner says a significant landslide has occurred over a large section of the highway as a result of heavy rain in the area over the last 24 hours.

“As the rock and material are still falling onto the highway, our contractors are unable to get to the slip to begin clearing it.”

Mr Pinner says with the amount of material on the road it is expected to take two to three days to clear the site.

“The alternative route for motorists is State Highway 7 through Lewis Pass.”

The landslide was caught on camera by 3 News iWitness Josh Solomon.

"The weather is so horrible around the area, avoid using Arthur's Pass if you can," he said.

Arthur's Pass is not the only part of the country to face blustery weather, with MetService warning of winds up to 150km/h throughout the upper South Island and Lower North Island this afternoon. Unsettled weather is expected to continue throughout the weekend.

[Howard]

Five Missing After Massive Landslide in Georgia (May 17)

A landslide in Dariali Valley in northern Georgia has severed the only road across the Caucasus Mountain Range. Five people are still missing.

Locals say three Turkish construction workers died who were working on the Dariali hydro power station.

The pipeline that ships gas from Russia to Armenia is damaged. Rescue workers have now started to evacuate locals. Energy Minister Kakhi Kaladze says the top priority is to reopen the road and get the pipeline back online.

The landslide happened in Dariali Valley in northern Georgia, on the Caucasus range near the Russian border. It severed the road connecting Georgia and Russia and the rock masses that tumbled down blocked off the Tergi river and may flood Larsi border crossing, a joint Georgian-Russian checkpoint, and adjacent areas of the Russian republic North Ossetia.

A rescue operation is underway. The government stated that 15 people had been rescued. Information about the death of three people, presumable Turkish workers working on construction of the nearby Dariali hydro electric station, has yet to be confirmed by officials.

The Georgian prime minister and president, as well as the energy minister and other officials are present on the ground.

Kaladze, the energy minister, told journalists that up to 1 million cubic meter of land crumbled into the river Tergi, thus blocking the water flow and severing the main road across the Caucasus, the Georgian Military Route, which was built in early 1800s by the Russian Empire to strengthen its hold over South Caucasus.

After the Abkhazian War in the early 1990s that severed main route connecting Georgia and Russia, and war with Russia in August in 2008 that blocked Roki tunnel for transportation from Georgia proper, the GMR is the sole artery connecting Georgia and Armenia with North Caucasus.

An unknown number of light vehicles and trucks are stuck in the road.

Locals say 3 Turkish construction workers working on the Dariali hydro power plant have died. Border guards and other workers found shelter in monastery, because the landslide destroyed their homes and the places they work.

Nugzar Kipiani, governor of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, said rescue teams, police and emergency workers are at the site of the accident.

Sources

http://dfwatch.net/five-missing-after-massive-landslide-in-georgia-...

http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/05/20/dariali-valley-landsl...

[Howard]

Cedar River Near Seattle Closed by Massive Landslide (May 10)

The King County Sheriff's Office has ordered a section of the Cedar River southeast of Seattle closed following a massive landslide.

The closed area stretches from Maple Valley Highway -- State Route 169 -- to Maxwell Road. It affects all river activities, including fishing, boating, floating and swimming.

No one was injured by the slide, which is 200 to 250 feet across, according to the sheriff's office. Some homes suffered minor damages but no one has been ordered to evacuate.

Sources

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/05/...

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/258769911.html

[Howard]

Keonhar India Landslip Fuels Panic (May 7)

Panic gripped Anjar, Danapur, Jamunalia, Talakainsari and Rajabandha villages near Sanghagara waterfall in Keonhar district after a big patch of hill with a forest stretch came crashing down on Wednesday.

The landslide took place 10 km from here and two km from Bhuyan Juanga Pirha range office. The incident came to limelight when a group of tribals went to collect firewood.

While the cause of landslip is yet to be ascertained, the forest department is investigating into it and assessing the loss.

Wildlife are feared to have been affected. Divisional forest officer (Keonjhar) Rohit Kumar Lenka said, "We have sought the help of geologists to know the cause of the landslide,"

Several trees were uprooted and big stones came rolling down, department sources said. A half-a-km stretch has cracked. Local people suspect wild animals might have been trapped inside the soil.

Source

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/Sanghagara-land...

[Andrey Eroshin]

07.05.14. Landslide in Kasomalang, Subang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia

http://www.reportersubang.com/2014/05/puluhan-hektar-sawah-terancam...

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...

[sourabh kale]

Five houses in a Prince George’s County neighborhood have been deemed unsafe and 23 others have had to be evacuated after a chunk of earth dislodged beneath the properties over the weekend and slid downward, triggering a water main break and destabilizing the road to the homes.

And for residents it is not clear when they’ll be able to return.

Prince George’s County government officials said the road collapse occurred on Piscataway Drive in Fort Washington. Geo-technical engineers called it a “slope failure,” a sort of lower-grade landslide.

The strip of land that is collapsing is about 1,500 feet long, said Darrell Mobley, director of the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation. Trees up to 200 feet tall are falling, taking power lines with them.

Now officials are rushing to assess the situation and devise a plan for restoring the area’s structural integrity.

“It will take at least two weeks timeframe for them to determine an appropriate short term solution to the problem,” Mobley said. “It’s too early to determine” when residents can return.

A dramatic crack has split the middle of a street in the neighborhood, made up of large, single-family, custom-made houses.

Officials said they saw Piscataway Drive, a dead-end street that cascades downhill to the Potomac River tributary Piscataway Creek, start to crack over the weekend. County and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission workers went to the area three times to repair the break but eventually told residents Sunday the situation had deteriorated, said Aubrey Thagard, assistant deputy chief administrative officer for the county’s office of economic development and public infrastructure.

Prince George’s officials are hoping to have more information on Tuesday about the sloping, but they said they think the significant rainfall last week may have caused the soil to shift.

But some frustrated residents said the sloping land is not a new problem.

“We have had smaller mudslides for the last 10 years,” said homeowner Dawn Taylor. “The county has come and patched-job the cracks in our slopes but they have not fixed it.”

Resident Sue Howland arrived on the scene and burst into tears. Her husband is an amputee who can’t get around on his own, and she takes care of 20 cats.

“This is our dream house and I didn’t know if we’re facing never seeing it again,” said Howland, who, overcome with emotion, fell into a county employee’s arms.

Officials were working to help her husband out of the home and find shelter for the couple as well as their pets.

An information center has been set up at Harmony Hall Regional Center on Livingston Road. County officials will work with the American Red Cross to shelter displaced homeowners, though many said they would be staying with friends or family. Family services also will be providing meals at Harmony Hall to those forced to evacuate.

At least one resident didn’t understand why county officials were forcing people out.

“I don’t want to leave, the county is being unreasonable,” said John Schnizlein, waving his orange mandatory evacuation notice that had been taped onto his front door.

Schnizlein, a 19-year resident of the neighborhood, said the water main has broken several times before and he, along with several neighbors, is determined to stay.

“Our goal is to get you back as soon as we can, safely,” Gary Cunningham, of the county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement, told Schnizlein.

But Schnizlein was determined to stay. He said if he needed water for the bathroom he would get it from the nearby creek.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/28-prince-georges-county-homes-...