Earth Changes and the Pole Shift
Landslides
"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. "
Howard
Alaska Highway Buried Under Multiple Avalanches (Jan 24)
Things have gotten so bad on the mountain slopes of Prince William Sound that avalanches are not common -- they are constant.
"An avalanche technician (working in the area) told me that in Valdez, you could hear them coming down constantly," Jeremy Woodrow, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation, said late Saturday evening. Woodrow added that the avalanche sizes and danger are among the worst the area has ever seen.
A 50-mile stretch of the Richardson Highway outside Valdez will remain closed until at least Monday as crews charged with clearing avalanche debris work to bring down unstable snow in Thompson Pass.
Multiple avalanches early Friday morning blocked the highway, effectively cutting off the town of Valdez by road. The slides measured several hundred feet long and between 30 and 40 feet deep, Woodrow said.
Crews spent Saturday dropping aerial explosives on chutes in hopes of averting additional slides. A crew was also delivered by helicopter to a stationary avalanche gun to blast more of the slide area, Woodrow said.
A new avalanche slid down the north side of Keystone Canyon on Saturday, Woodrow said. It measured between 1,000 and 1,500 feet long and between 60 and 70 feet deep.
By the end of the day, it was determined that the slide area was still too unstable for crews to enter the canyon and begin removing snow and debris. Blasting efforts will continue from dawn to dusk on Sunday, and the roadway will remain closed until Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather, Woodrow said.
"It's one of the larger avalanche activities ever seen in this area," Woodrow said.
Water flowing from the Lowe River, which was dammed by slides at Mile 16, began receding overnight Friday. A flash flood warning and evacuation order issued earlier in the day was lifted for residents of Keystone Canyon on Saturday, as well as a voluntary evacuation order for those living in Alpine Woods and the 10 Mile area.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker, his wife, and lieutenant governor candidate Craig Fleener expected to drive to Valdez for a campaign event Friday night. But after hearing of the avalanche in Keystone Canyon, they ended up on a plane instead.
Walker said in an email that they didn't see the avalanche itself from the air but noticed major portions of Mile High Mountain where snow had slid, leaving large brown dirt patches.
"We were told that on Thursday night in Valdez, residents were woken up when these in-town slides broke loose," Walker wrote. "They likened the sound to that of a jet engine."
Source
http://www.adn.com/2014/01/25/3291523/road-crews-work-to-neutralize...
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140125/avalanches-almost-co...
Jan 27, 2014
Howard
More on the avalanches isolating Valdez, Alaska - Jan 27
The threat posed by a half-mile long lake pooled behind a snow dam in Keystone Canyon, and continuing avalanche danger from the slopes above, make it too dangerous for crews to move in and begin cleaning up, officials said.
"There are just too many unknowns at this point," statewide maintenance engineer Mike Coffey said.
Valdez city officials have consistently said they expect the highway to be closed "for at least one week, but very possibly longer," according to city spokeswoman Sheri Pierce. The Alaska Department of Transportation had been more optimistic, saying on Sunday it could be re-opened as early as Tuesday.
But a flyover Monday showed the scale of the dammed water, Coffey said, and the State said the road is closed "until further notice."
The situation on the Richardson Highway, involving multiple avalanches on both sides of Thompson Pass, is "extraordinary," Coffey said.
"We haven't had to deal with anything quite like this before."
The largest slide is also the closest to Valdez, at Mile 16 of the highway in Keystone Canyon.
The avalanche debris field in the canyon is estimated to be 100 feet tall and between 1,000 feet and 1,500 feet long.
Highway officials say they've never seen an avalanche this large touch a roadway.
The other major slide is at Mile 39, toward the north end of the closure. It is estimated to be between 30-40 feet deep.
Between a half-dozen and a dozen smaller, isolated slides dot the highway closure area, between Mile 12 and Mile 64.
Source
http://www.adn.com/2014/01/27/3293690/highway-to-valdez-to-be-close...
Jan 28, 2014
KM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547882/Watch-amazing-foota...
Gone in 60 seconds: Huge boulders flatten 300-year-old house causing millions of pounds of damages
PUBLISHED: 06:22 GMT, 29 January 2014 | UPDATED: 12:08 GMT, 29 January 2014
Amazing drone footage has captured the trail of destruction left by a rockfall in northern Italy.
Approximately 4,000 cubic metres of rock broke off a cliff face and then crashed through a barn and vineyards in Tramin on January 21.
One giant rock rolled through a 300-year-old barn destroying it completely before coming to an eventual stop in a field near a second boulder, which seems to have been dislodged in a previous rockslide.
Scroll down for video
Destroyed: The boulders, some of which can be seen on the far right of this picture, tore down the hillside and destroyed part of this building
A third boulder rolled toward the main section of the building, stopping mere metres before crashing into it.
The property shown in the video is The Freisingerhof, which is owned by the Servite order of the Catholic church.
The manager of the estate Baron Philipp von Hohenbühel told South Tirol News that the rockfall has done millions of euros worth of damage.
No one was hurt in the landslide, which was reportedly caused by a rock tower in the cliff face dissolving.
The area has been evacuated of residents, as geologists fear there is still the risk of further rock falls.
Jan 29, 2014
Howard
Stunning video footage from a helicopter of the massive avalanche and subsequent ice dam that has isolated the town of Valdez, Alaska.
Jan 29, 2014
Tracie Crespo
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2014/01/30/landslide-and-flood-leave-of... via @norwaynews
Landslide and flood leave officials baffled
The county of Nord-Trøndelag was dealing with the aftermath on Thursday of yet another natural calamity that forced evacuations and left authorities puzzled. Geologists and technicians now think an undersea landslide set off a tidal wave of sorts that smashed into the small community of Nord-Statland.
Authorities were reviewing the wreckage that initially was believed to have been caused on late Wednesday afternoon by a landslide into the sea on the other side of the fjord. Police thought that sent a huge wave crashing into the small port. No one was injured but more than 50 people had to be evacuated.
On Thursday, a closer look into the damage indicated that the landslide itself couldn’t have set off such a reaction from the sea. Now officials at the state waterways agency NVE think an underwater landslide is to blame.
The damage occurred not far from where firefighters were battling a blaze that swept across the Flatanger peninsula. Police arriving at the scene west of the city of Namsos said the small coastal community looked like a battlefield itself, with damaged boats scattered at sea and several buildings destroyed or badly damaged. Some were only partially above the waterline. A car and several docks were also tossed into the sea.
One witness said the wave that crashed into the village was around 15 meters high (more than 45 feet). Officials were meeting with residents Thursday afternoon, to let them know when they may be able to move home.
Jan 30, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://www.rpp.com.pe/2014-01-21-indeci-realizara-inspeccion-aerea-...
http://diariocorreo.pe/ultimas/noticias/8127324/huancavelica-y-juni...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
Jan 31, 2014
Howard
More on the unexplained localized tsunami in Norway on Jan 29.
Boats, docks, parts of a road and a large workshop building was destroyed. Smolt plant was also badly hit by the water pipes to the facility was destroyed.
"We have already lost well over a million fish", says operations Odd Arve Halbostad.
Smolt plant is located onshore, producing both smolt and rainbow trout.
"Before I came here today it was hard to imagine what it looked like, although I have seen pictures", said Mayor Steinar Lyngstad. "It is inconceivable that such a thing could happen".
BEFORE
How it looked in Kalvika and Sheer Skjæret before the tsunami hit:
AFTER
The great tidal wave swept into the bay by the fjord, and destroyed boats, docks, parts of a road and a large workshop building.
Sources
http://www.nrk.no/trondelag/_-kunne-blitt-en-katastrofe-1.11507175
http://www.nrk.no/trondelag/to-ars-produksjon-kan-vaere-tapt-1.1150...
http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/nordtrondelag/article9040275.ece
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
Feb 2, 2014
Tracie Crespo
Landslides, crashes lead to long commute in the Gorge
http://www.kptv.com/story/24722109/landslides-crashes-lead-to-night...
Feb 15, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-26210501
15 February 2014 Last updated at 12:55 ET
East Beach at West Bay cordoned off after landslide
Part of a Dorset beach has been cordoned off following a "large" cliff fall, Portland Coastguard has said.
The landslip on East Cliff Beach, West Bay, happened at about 14:30 GMT.
Coastguards, the fire service and police were at the scene and people have been urged to stay away from the cliffs.
It is not yet known if anyone was hurt. A coastguard helicopter was used "to determine the state of the remaining cliffs", Solent Coastguard said.
Watch manager Andy Jenkins said: "We did have a report that two people were missing in the area, but they have now been accounted for."
He added Dorset County Council were sending a geologist to assess the site.
The slip at the East Cliff of East Beach is about a mile along the coast from where Charlotte Blackman, from Derbyshire, died in the Burton Bradstock landslip in 2012.
Feb 16, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://www.telefonorojo.mx/2014/2/11/hundimiento-y-olvido-en-oaxaca...
http://www.diariodemexicousa.com/fotos-se-hunde-pueblo-de-oaxaca/ol...
http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mexico-landslides-cracks-a...
Feb 16, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://www.barganews.com/2014/01/20/rain-stopped-damage-assessed/
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/01/20/foto/maltempo_evacu...
Feb 16, 2014
Tracie Crespo
Eastbound U.S. 30 near Portland blocked by landslide that caused rollover crash http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/eastbound_us_3...
Feb 17, 2014
Tracie Crespo
Huge landslide strikes near Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska - February 16
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140220/huge-landslide-strik...
A huge landslide tumbled down a mountain in southeast Alaska near Glacier Bay early Sunday morning.
Sunday’s slide appears to have come down the flanks of 10,728-foot Mount La Perouse at 5:24 a.m. local time and flowed in the east-northeast direction, said Colin Stark, a Columbia University geologist who helped develop a new system to detect major landslides around the world using satellite imagery. Calculations of mass suggest it sent about 68 million metric tons of debris down a mountain slope, though that is a “pretty rough estimate,” he said in a telephone interview. "To put in concrete terms, the mass was equivalent to about 190 Empire State Buildings."
Feb 22, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://www.newshidalgo.com.mx/?p=35431
http://ixcotla.com/?p=1280
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
Feb 22, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/isola-2000-two-children-cru...
Two sleeping children crushed to death by giant boulder which destroyed French ski chalet
The youngsters, aged seven and 10, were staying near to the resort of Isola 2000 when a landslide occurred around 5am this morning
Two children have been killed after a giant boulder crushed their ski chalet as they slept.
The youngsters were staying near to the resort of Isola 2000, in the French Alps, when the tragedy happened in the early hours of this morning.
A landslide occurred around 5am which sent the boulder crashing onto the chalet, crushing the children, aged seven and 10, to death.
Jean-Marie Bogini, the mayor of the village of Isola, told reporters: "It happened in a chalet on the outskirts of the village. There was a landslide.
"There were seven people in the house – five adults and two children."
Two families were staying at the chalet when the landslide happened. Some of the adults managed to escape but the children were trapped.
None of those involved have been identified yet.
Gendarme Commander Gael Marchand said: "Three of the survivors managed to get out of the rubble alone, while the remaining two had to be freed by the emergency service."
A landslide occurred around 5am which sent the boulder crashing onto the chalet, crushing the children, aged seven and 10, to death.
Jean-Marie Bogini, the mayor of the village of Isola, told reporters: "It happened in a chalet on the outskirts of the village. There was a landslide.
"There were seven people in the house – five adults and two children."
Two families were staying at the chalet when the landslide happened. Some of the adults managed to escape but the children were trapped.
None of those involved have been identified yet.
Gendarme Commander Gael Marchand said: "Three of the survivors managed to get out of the rubble alone, while the remaining two had to be freed by the emergency service."
Feb 24, 2014
Howard
Massive Landslide in Alaska (Feb 16)
(This is a supplement to the Glacier Bay landslide reported earlier by Tracie Crespo.)
A commercial pilot has captured images of a massive, snow-strewn landslide that cascaded down a slope in remote southeastern Alaska last week, providing the first on-the-ground evidence of what geologists think might be the world's largest natural landslide since 2010.
The sediment stretched more than four miles down the mountain, and the slide was triggered on a near-vertical mountain face 9,200 feet high.
Interestingly, this is within 10 km of the hisoric Mount Lituya landslide that occurred in June 2012. (see below)
Olson struggled to see the ground through cloud cover at first, but says that the fallen rocks were easy to detect once they came into view.
"It stands out like a sore thumb," Olson told Live Science. "It's a big rubble field and a big gash on the side of the mountain, and everything else is pretty much white, so it's not hard to spot."
The scientists estimate that the slump contains roughly 68 million metric tons of rock, which is equivalent to roughly 40 million SUVs, geologist Colin Stark, a researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told Live Science last week.
The geologists estimate that the landslide started at roughly 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level on a nearly vertical cliff, and then ran for roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers), wrote AGU blogger David Petley, who is also a professor of hazard and risk at Durham University in the United Kingdom.
The landslide churned up a lot of ice and snow, and appears to be as much as 43 feet (13 meters) thick in some locations. But fresh snow has already begun to bury and hide the landslide, the scientists say.
The researchers have yet to release satellite images that will further help analyze the rocky scar in the snow, but tentatively say that this could be the largest natural landslide since 2010 — a year when a series of large events occurred within Pakistan and the Himalayas.
Sources
http://www.livescience.com/43632-massive-landslide-in-alaska.html
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/
http://www.weather.com/news/alaska-landslide-images-20140225
Feb 25, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://www.noticiaspv.com/deslizamiento-provoca-perdida-de-30-metro...
Mar 1, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
http://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/rimini/provincia/2014/02/28/1032648...
Mar 1, 2014
KM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573058/Birling-Gap-Homes-p...
Living on the edge: Homes perilously close to tumbling into sea after Sussex coast is battered by seven years' worth of erosion in just three months
By Kieran Corcoran
PUBLISHED: 16:40 GMT, 4 March 2014 | UPDATED: 21:49 GMT, 4 March 2014
This is the dramatic moment a stretch of grass-topped cliff toppled into the sea in a cloud of rubble and dust after the winter's savage storms caused seven years of erosion in just three months.
To the shock of stunned bystanders sat on a wall just metres away the chunks of cliff top broke away from the cliff face at Birling Gap, on the East Sussex Coast and plunged onto the beach below today.
A huge crack could be seen along the top of the cliff in the moments before the stones fell, while other crevices have also formed along the edge of the picturesque coastline.
Over the weekend a 100-square-foot area of the collapsed, leaving a cottage dangerously close to the sheer 30ft drop below.
Earlier this year experts at the National Trust, which runs the site, said the pace of erosion was 'breathtaking', and that the organisation had not expected such extreme levels of damage for another decade.
Peter Nixon, the trust's director of land, landscape and nature, said traditional flood defences can make the situation worse, and warned against trying to 'engineer our way out'.
Mr Nixon said: ‘A false sense of security in artificial defences can lead you to a catastrophic collapse, as opposed to a managed impact.
‘You can’t hold the line everywhere, it’s physically impossible and it’s not good for society.’
Cracks: A huge crack can be seen forming on the edge of this clifftop in Birling Gap, on the East Sussex Coast which has suffered seven years of erosion in just three months as a result of the savage winter storms. There is a cloud of dust as the edge of the cliff starts to give way, and begins to slide onto the beach below.
Mar 5, 2014
jorge namour
Landslide on the pipeline, Genoa remains indefinitely without heating- ITALY
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Even an emergency in Liguria caused by a landslide. This time to be hit and 'the national gas pipeline network Snam in a locality' of the hinterland of Genoa. The Civil Defence of Genoa has issued a call in the evening to the people of Genoa and sixteen other towns not to use central heating systems and self-limiting the use of gas for cooking. A Orero, the village directly interested in the landslide, and 'tripped the security alarm. Due to the risk of explosions and 'was closed to traffic a ring, where and' forbidden ignition engines, mobile phones and flames. No danger to residents as the case may 'are close to a few tens of meters. According to the regional minister of civil protection Gianni Crivello the damage caused by the landslide and '"important" and at the moment not possible to forecast the timing re-establish the service. Technicians are working to identify the exact point of failure in a few tens of meters wide. The landslide no visible fractures in the soil and pipeline, 24-inch, and 'remained hidden under the ground, at a depth' of about 4 meters. Crivello has activated the Municipal Civil Protection Operations Center (COC) with the participation of officials of Rete Gas also Italian and firefighters. The Municipality of Genoa has ordered that citizenship does not use natural gas if not for cooking food. They must be turned off all central heating systems and autonomous as well as' hot water production facilities. The Civil Protection has set up a toll-free number and street lighting panels in order to inform the citizenry. "The timely shutdown of the plant - says the City - allow 'to return safely and with greater rapidity' service.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=n&...
http://www.meteoweb.eu/2014/03/frana-su-gasdotto-genova-resta-senza...
Mar 21, 2014
Tracie Crespo
http://local.msn.com/2-killed-in-big-washington-state-mudslide
2 killed in big Washington state mudslide
The Snohomish County sheriff's office says two people have died in a massive mudslide in Washington state, and others are injured.
This photo provided by the Washington State Patrol shows the aftermath of a mudslide that moved a house with people inside in Snohomish County on Saturday March 22, 2014. AP Photo: Washington State Patrol
OSO, Wash. — Two people died in a massive mudslide in Washington state on Saturday, and others were injured, the Snohomish County sheriff's office reported.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Bronlea Mishler says two died after an estimated mile-long slide carried a house with people inside across a rural road north of Seattle just before 11 a.m. Saturday.
Five people injured in the Snohomish County landslide have been brought to a nearby hospital for treatment, said spokeswoman Jennifer Egger of Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington.
It's unclear if the two killed are among those injured, or if any of those people were inside the house that was swept away.
Cascade Valley Hospital was expecting more injured people, but Egger said she didn't know how many and couldn't comment on the condition of those already at the hospital because they were still being evaluated.
The American Red Cross has set up at the hospital and is seeking donations of food, water, blankets and clothing, Egger said.
The Daily Herald reported that as of 1 p.m., officials were moving rescuers back from the scene, citing concerns of the North Fork Stillaguamish River rising because of the mudslide.
"Initial reports were that a house was stuck in the slide, and someone was calling for help inside," Trooper Mark Francis said.
Search-and-rescue operations are underway by Snohomish County crews and the Washington State Patrol.
The Washington Department of Transportation says mud, trees and building materials are blocking both directions of State Route 530 near the town of Oso, about 55 miles north of Seattle.
Heavy rain over this past week likely contributed to the mudslide. Saturday's weather was sunny and clear.
Spokesman Bart Treece of the Washington State Department of Transportation said he doesn't know how long the two-lane rural road will be closed. Drivers are advised to find another way to get between Darrington and Arlington, he said.
"We're standing by ready to help out where we can," Treece said.
Mar 22, 2014
KM
http://www.dailypost.vu/content/landslide-tragedy-claims-five-lives
LANDSLIDE TRAGEDY CLAIMS FIVE LIVES
Flooding and landslide caused by Cycone Lusi in the villages of Ukoro and Puarante in south Santo has claimed the lives of two mothers, two girls and a three year old boy.
These included a pregnant mother. Two more are still missing and believed to be buried by the landslide while six are injured and receiving medical treatments.
Sanma Province officer Kensly Micah who was part of the Search And Rescue (SAR) team to the Village of Puarante in South Santo on March 13 told Daily Post the village of Puarante in south Santo has a total of 13 households altogether but while nine households respond to evacuate to higher ground prior to the incident, members of four households remained in the village.
Damages confirmed to have happened on the village of Puarante were; 19 houses, one Aid post, two hot-air driers,one nakamal, loss of livestock and complete destruction of the village structure.
He reported another potential landslide threat to villagers along the Waialo River, south Santo. The village of Kerenbai, located downstream of Puarante village was reported to have received warnings of evacuation to higher ground due to the risk of landslide and flooding.
Daily post understands that a team of Luganville Police officers, Vanuatu Mobile force (VMF), Save the Children, Environment, World Vision and Sanma Province have mobilize to the area to help locate and bury the victims’ bodies.
The incident occurred around 9pm on March 11, 2014 as the National Disaster Management Office gave a red alert for Cyclone Lusi for the provinces of Torba, Sanma, Penama and Malampa.
Meanwhile late yesterday afternoon Daily received confirmation that the Vanuatu Government through the Ministry of Finance has approved Vt13 Million towards emergency relief efforts to relieve the damage by cyclone Lusi in the most affected parts of Vanuatu and also towards the Rapid Respond Cluster Ground Assessment Teamwork.
The National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) spokesperson said the NDMO has fully prepared the cluster team of representatives from Health, Agriculture, Education, Water, Sanitation Hygiene, Protection and logistics that are being deployed this week to the worst affected population in worst affected areas.
Daily Post understands a helicopter is being engaged by the NDMO to transport the rapid respond cluster team and the emergency relief supplies to the worst affected population this week.
Unconfirmed reports say people from another village also in South Santo were evacuated to another village or location as a result of the damaged caused to their village. But this is yet to be verified y the NDMO later today.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/239489/chief-in...
Mar 23, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/huge-washington-landslide-kills...
Huge Washington Landslide Kills Three and Dams a River - March 22, 2014
“First responders heard someone inside screaming for help” as the landslide swept a house onto a road in the community of Oso in Snohomish County at approximately 11 a.m. (2 p.m. ET) Saturday, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Francis.
Among the injured was a 6-month-old in critical condition, according to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The hospital was also treating a 37-year-old male and an 81-year-old man both in critical condition and a 58-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman in serious condition, said spokeswoman Susan Gregg.
Another man brought to Harborview died of his injuries, Gregg said.
The search for survivors continued into the night. Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said at a news briefing late Saturday that people were still yelling for help, NBC station KING5 of Seattle reported.
Earlier, the search involved the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol, Washington Department of Transportation, and Army Corps of Engineers. The Department of Emergency Management, U.S. Navy and local fire departments were also involved in the search, the DOT said.
Portions of State Route 530 were shut down, and the monster mudslide “diverted part of a local river, which started a flood in the area,” Francis said.
"Very high potential for fast upstream, downstream flooding. Prep now in case you have to leave quickly," the Snohomish County Government warned in a tweet four hours after the initial slide.
Officials said reverse 911 calls were sent warning residents of the danger of flooding from the North Fork Stillaguamish River upstream from the slide, as well as the possibility of flooding 12 miles downstream to Arlington should there be a catastrophic breach by the river.
Snohomish County officials said in a tweet that hundreds of people could be at risk in the flood plain.
"Anyone along the flood plain of the Stillaguamish between Oso and Stanwood should leave," Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement that offered condolences to the victims' families.
The commander of the Snohomish County Search & Rescue team told NBC affiliate KING5 that the slide is the largest he's seen in the area in 30 years.
Francis said Snohomish County rainfall accumulations have broken records for the month of March.
Aerial photos showed a huge chunk of hillside had let loose, falling hundreds of yards into the valley.
Mar 23, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
17.03.14. "Subsidence of One Million Hectares of Land" in Iran
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/129422
http://www.payvand.com/news/14/mar/1106.html
Mar 23, 2014
Howard
Aerial view photograph portrays the unbridled devastation visited upon Oso, Washington.
Mar 26, 2014
Ecosikh
This shows the before and after with the movements of the land mass.
Mar 26, 2014
Howard
Land Fissures in Utah (Mar 31)
A just-released report from the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) shows the ground has been sinking.
The comprehensive 116-page report presents the results of an investigation of land subsidence and earth fissures in Cedar Valley, Iron County, Utah
The settling, called subsidence, and the cracks, called fissures, represent a major problem.
“Because the ground does not subside evenly, earth fissures or deep ground cracks, have formed,” said Tyler Knudsen, UGS project geologist.
The subsidence has caused a total of more than eight miles of earth fissures to form.
The earth fissures have been most noticeable in a partially developed subdivision in Enoch, Utah.
Fissures in this area have destroyed pavement and reversed the sewer system in the Parkview Subdivision, which was not completed and contains pavement, sidewalks and one uninhabitable house.
The UGS believes one fissure has extended into the inhabited Legacy Estates subdivision by 240 feet, and comes within 50 feet of a home.
Sources
http://www.ironcountytoday.com/pages/full_story/push?article-UGS+pr...
http://geology.utah.gov/whatsnew/news/new0314b.htm
Apr 6, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-143865-Dir-Bala:-Landslide-hittin...
Dir Bala: Landslide hitting a house feared buried 11 persons
DIRBALA: At least eleven persons feared to have been buried as landslide hit a house at Kalkot Kohistan, while rescue teams have left for the scene of incident on Tuesday here, Geo News reported.
Local sources said that the incident occurred last night at Badran in the union council Kalkot Kohistan area, when landslide came crashing on a house feared to have buried underneath 9/11 persons including women and children.
Police and local people have rushed to the area for rescue operation
Apr 8, 2014
Tracie Crespo
http://news.msn.com/us/massive-rockfall-in-yosemite-national-park
Massive rockfall in Yosemite National Park
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Officials at Yosemite National Park say a massive amount of rock has fallen from a cliff, closing a hiking trail.
The National Park Service said Monday that nobody was hurt when the 16,000 tons of rock fell 500 feet from a cliff near Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on March 31. Many boulders tumbled into the water.
Officials say the rock crashed down from a cliff east of Wapama Falls. The rock broke into numerous boulders, crushing trees and sending up a small dust cloud.
In this photo supplied by Yosemite National Park, a rockfall is seen on Monday, March 31, 2014.
Some 400 feet of the Rancheria Falls Trail were destroyed and park staff says it will remain closed for now. Park officials say hikers can still get to Wapama Falls starting at O'Shaughnessy Dam.
Apr 9, 2014
Howard
Computer Animation Estimates Oso Washington Landslide at 100 KPH (Apr 11)
The animation shows that most of the material traveled more than a kilometer in about 90 seconds. The top speed is estimated at almost 100 kilometres per hour.
Source
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25403-animation-shows-how-was...
Apr 12, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2603890/48-residents-evacua...
48 residents were evacuated and one home is 'splitting in two' in wake of Wyoming landslide the 'size of two football fields'
A Wyoming landslide about the size of two football fields continues to slowly move down a hill, causing nearby residents to evacuate - and splitting apart one home.
48 Jackson residents as well as several businesses were evacuated, according to a CNN report. The residents checked in to a Red Cross station.
So far, only one unoccupied home has sustained any damage. The house is directly atop the slide zone and its interior wooden floor seems to be splitting in two, Assistant Town Manager Roxanne Robinson told the channel.
Crack: A large fissure can be seen in the ground in this photo
'What really struck me is the wood flooring, which is separating,' Robinson said. 'One half of the house looks like it's on side of the slide area and the other half is definitely at the crest of the slide.'
Robinson also said that the home's driveway is cracked by a 6-1o-12-inch upward fissure.
According to CNN, the landslide moves slowly enough for officials to observe ground cracks and monitor its path each day.
Officials say the landslide continues to shift, making it unsafe for residents of mostly apartments to return home even though the apartments are outside the area where the highest risk of a collapse exists.
'The cracks continue to widen and deepen,' Robinson said on Saturday. 'If it keeps sliding every day, other complications could arise.'
No one can say right now when residents might be allowed back home, Robinson said.
Robinson said portable water tanks were being placed on the unstable hill in case a fire breaks out. The shifting hill has broken permanent water lines, and the temporary water lines that have been put in place don't provide sufficient pressure for firefighting, she said.
There are power lines on the hill that could be brought down by the slide and spark a fire.
'It's definitely dry on the hill, and we need to have a water supply that we can access in a hurry should it be necessary,' said Mike Moyer, an official with the local incident command team.
At the foot of the slide zone, two restaurants, a liquor store and a just-built Walgreens remain closed amid a slim but persistent risk the hill could collapse suddenly.
A geologist put the risk of sudden collapse at just 5 percent.
Helping hand: the American Red Cross is set to open a shelter for displaced residents on Sunday night
Damage: a large crack can also be seen in this photo of the affected Jackson area
Apr 14, 2014
Tracie Crespo
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/least-13-sherpas-dead-avalanche-s...
At Least 13 Sherpas Dead as Avalanche Sweeps Mount Everest
An avalanche swept down a slope of Mount Everest on Friday along a route used to ascend the world's highest peak, killing at least 13 people in the mountain's deadliest disaster.
NBC News confirmed that all of the dead were Sherpa guides.
The guides had gone early in the morning to fix the ropes for hundreds of climbers when the avalanche hit them just below Camp 2 around 6:30 a.m. local time, Nepal Tourism Ministry official Krishna Lamsal told The Associated Press.
Tilak Ram Pandey, an official at the ministry's mountaineering department, later told Reuters that some other people were thought to be missing.
Hundreds of climbers, their guides and support guides had gathered at the base camp, gearing up for their final attempt to scale the 29,035-foot peak early next month when weather conditions get favorable. They have been setting up their camps at higher altitudes and guides fixing routes and ropes on the slopes ahead of the final ascend to the summit in May.
As soon as the avalanche hit, rescuers and fellow climbers rushed to help. A helicopter was also sent.
Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said that the area where the avalanche occurred is nicknamed the "popcorn field," which is just below Camp 2 at 21,000 feet.
Nepal had earlier announced several steps this year to better manage the flow of climbers, minimize congestion and speed up rescue operations. The preparations included the dispatch of officials and security personnel to the base camp located at 17,380 feet, where they would stay throughout the spring climbing season that ends in May.
More than 4,000 climbers have scaled the summit since 1953, when it was first conquered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Nearly 250 others have died on the mountain.
The worst recorded disaster on Everest was on May 11, 1996, when eight climbers were killed in one day because of a storm near the summit. Six Nepalese guides were killed in an avalanche in 1970.
— Sarah Burke of NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Apr 18, 2014
Yvonne Lawson
Massive landslide threatens Mont Blanc tunnel in Italy
MILAN, Italy, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A series of landslides over the past few days have disrupted traffic near Courmayeur, a renowned tourist resort in the Italian Alps, forcing temporarily closure of Mont Blanc tunnel, local reports said on Tuesday.
Around 20,000 cubic meters of mud and rock fell on Monday night, while another estimated 400,000 cubic meters of earth were on the move triggered by rising temperatures.
Local authorities reportedly closed Mont Blanc tunnel, which links Italy and France, for about two hours as a result of the crashing rocks.
Meanwhile dozens of citizens had to temporarily leave their homes while protection teams and volunteers were at work to clean roads and shore up protective barriers against further landslides.
After visiting Courmayeur on Tuesday, the head of Italian civil protection Franco Gabrielli told a press conference that the situation was "complex" not only for the "hundreds of thousands of cubic meters that will soon begin to fall, but especially because of a paleo-landslide of about 8-9 million cubic meters which has affected this area for 15 years."
He said that although it was not possible to predict when the paleo-landslide will fall completely, the renowned tourist resort was remaining "extremely safe." However, Gabrielli also added, the series of landslides was posing a threat to Mont Blanc tunnel because "an intermediate collapse would be enough to block international traffic for who knows how long."
The head of civil protection said that a total of 480,000 areas subject to landslides have been counted in Italy. But the real figure, he underlined, probably was of nearly two million areas, meaning that some 40 billion euros (55 billion U.S. dollars) would be necessary to secure the entire country.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/23/c_133282123.htm
and from another with short video: http://www.euronews.com/2014/04/21/mont-blanc-region-fears-further-...
Apr 23, 2014
Howard
Map of landslides in the U.S. since 2007.
(Click on the link below for an interactive map.)
Apr 25, 2014
Tracie Crespo
Landslide blocks Nepali tunnel, 16 trapped
http://www.worldbulletin.net/asia-pasific/134716/landslide-blocks-n...
File Photo
A few Chinese technicians were working with about 12 Nepali workers inside the tunnel of the Upper Madi Hydroelectric Project when falling earth and rocks blocked its entrance.
World Bulletin/News Desk
Sixteen workers including a Chinese national have been trapped by a landslide inside the tunnel of a hydroelectric power project in Nepal, a project official said on Friday.
The men were working at the Upper Madi Hydroelectric Project in Kaski district, 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, when falling earth and rocks blocked the tunnel entrance.
"Excavators are removing the debris and we are trying to rescue those trapped inside," said Ram Raj Koirala, a Nepali official at the power station being built by a Chinese firm.
He said rescuers had established contact with 13 of the 16 people trapped in the tunnel and they were safe. There was no information about the others.
Drinking water and air have been supplied to the men through pipes and they are expected to be out in three to four hours, Koirala told Reuters from the site.
The project would generate 25 megawatts of power in the energy-starved country. The China International Water and Electric Corporation owns 80 percent of the $650 million plant while the project's Nepali backers own the rest.
Nepal has the potential to generate up to 83,000 megawatts of hydro-power from rivers cascading down from the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range.
But due to a lack of funds and technical know-how, just 1 percent of that potential has been tapped. Nepal's 27 million people typically endure 12 hours of power cuts a day.
China is a major donor, business partner and investor in Nepal, a strategically located buffer state between China and India. Many Chinese companies are involved in infrastructure projects that include hydroelectric power.
Apr 27, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.thenewage.co.za/124442-1020-53-At_least_4_dead_in_Mexico...
At least four people, including two children, died when torrential rains sparked a landslide in central Mexico in the pre-dawn hours Thursday, local authorities said.
May 1, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
Heavy rain causes landslide in Sea Cliff - Long Island NY
Published: May 1, 2014 1:18 PM
Much of the driveway and backyard of the house came tumbling down with the bluff into the Long Island Sound. (1:23 PM)
SEA CLIFF - The heavy rain caused a landslide in Sea Cliff, sending one homeowner's backyard into the Long Island Sound.
The home on Bay Avenue and 16th Avenue was evacuated, but there were no injuries reported.
Much of the driveway and backyard of the house came tumbling down with the bluff into the Sound at around 7 a.m..
The homeowner had recently spent $150,000 to build a new retaining wall.
Sea Cliff Mayor Bruce Kennedy says that officials are checking other houses to make sure that nobody else on the hillside is at risk.
May 1, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.wdam.com/story/25401086/heavy-rain-triggers-mudslide-in-ny
Heavy rain triggers mudslide in NY
Posted: May 01, 2014 9:07 AM EDTUpdated: May 01, 2014 9:22 AM EDT
YONKERS, NY (WCBS/CNN) - A retention wall partially collapsed in Yonkers, NY Wednesday night, causing a 40-foot-wide landslide.
The landslide covered a section of commuter train tracks with concrete, rock and dirt.
No one was hurt, but train commuters should expect delays of up to a half hour Thursday morning.
It's believed heavy rains caused the incident.
May 1, 2014
Howard
Video of the recent Baltimore landslide. Dramatic movement begins at around 1:15 min.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-incredible-video-shows-baltimo...
May 2, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/afghan-official-says-250-missing-aft...
2,000 MISSING AFTER LANDSLIDE IN AFGHANISTAN KILLS AT LEAST 350, BURIES VILLAGE
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A landslide buried about a third of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels and other equipment to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened the homes in its path.
The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced frequent floods in recent days, and the side of the hill collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik at about 1 p.m. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest.
Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after a hill collapsed on the village of after days of heavy rain. Adeeb said the landslide buried some 300 homes in the area — about a third of all houses there.
Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said at least 350 people died in the landslide. He said the U.N. was working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped.
The governor said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment.
"It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery."
Video footage of the scene showed how a large section of the mountain had simply slipped away sending mud and earth sliding through the village below.
The landslide was likely due to heavy rain in the area, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the province's director for National Disaster Department. He said floods last week in different districts of the province killed four people and eight more were still missing.
The province normally has many landslides, but they generally occur in remote areas and produce no casualties, said Mohammad Usman Abu Zar from the Meteorology Department of Badakhshan province. He said authorities would investigate further, but initial reports indicated that the heavy rain was the cause.
Authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides, the governor said.
Provincial police chief Faziluddin Hayar said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday. Friday is a day of worship in Afghanistan, so many families would have been at home instead of at work at the time.
Badakhshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Afghans living in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan are used to avalanches as well. The most deadly one in the past two years occurred in February 2010, when more than 170 people were killed at the 12,700-foot (3,800-meter) -high Salang Pass, which is the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.
May 2, 2014
Starr DiGiacomo
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/landslide-near-ender...
Landslide near Enderby, B.C., strands 200 residents
Emergency officials flying in drinking water and personnel, road won't be opened until Monday
The Shuswap River is clogged with logs and debris, east of Enderby, B.C., after a landslide washed out a bridge spanning Cooke Creek, isolating a number of residents.
A landslide has sent mud and vegetation down Cooke Creek into the Shuswap River, 25 kilometres east of Enderby in B.C.'s North Okanagan, leaving about 200 residents stranded.
The slide washed out Mabel Lake Road and a bridge spanning the creek, isolating residents on the other side. B.C. Hydro reports nearly 700 people are without power but the utility can't get into the area until the road is opened.
Crews with the Ministry of Transportation are working to clear the road, but it's estimated the road will be closed until Monday.
Vernon, B.C., Search and Rescue has been called to the scene.
Emergency officials say no one was injured in the slide but they are keeping watch as a large amount of logs and debris flows toward Enderby.
Dairy farmer Michael Haak lives five kilometres from the slide site and says he's never seen the waterway so clogged with debris and logs.
"It was moving pretty good. It was getting hung up a little bit on the irrigation intakes, and it kinda ripped them out," he said.
The town of Enderby has activated the regional emergency operations centre.
"We are taking every step we can to be well prepared in case there is any threat to infrastructure," said Tate Bengtson, Enderby's chief administrative officer.
May 3, 2014
Howard
Update on the recent landslide in Afghanistan:
Up to 2,700 Dead, 14,000 Affected by Historic Landslide in Badakhshan
The United Nations said the focus now was on helping more than 4,000 displaced people.
International organizations and Afghan officials said at least 300 mud brick homes were buried on Friday, but precise information on the number killed was hard to come by in the impoverished province bordering Tajikistan.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said more than 350 people were killed, but a spokesman for the local governor put the number in excess of 2,100. The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 2,700 were dead or missing.
"The scale of this landslide is absolutely devastating, with an entire village practically wiped away," IOM Afghanistan Chief of Mission Richard Danziger said. "Hundreds of families have lost everything and are in immense need of assistance."
The United Nations said the focus was now on the more than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of the landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be at risk. The IOM said over 14,000 people were affected.
Their main needs are water, medicine, food and emergency shelter, said Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Officials expressed concern the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the homeless as well as the U.N. and local rescue teams working there.
Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in the deep mud and rubble.
"Seven members of my family were here, four or five of them were killed ... I am also half alive, what can I do?" said an elderly woman, her hair covered in a pink shawl.
Dotted with villages of mud-brick homes nestled in valleys beside bare slopes, Badakhshan province has been hit by several deadly landslides in recent years.
Plea for help
The side of the mountain above Abi-Barak collapsed at around 11 a.m. local time on Friday as people were trying to recover belongings and livestock after a smaller landslip hit a few hours earlier.Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the landslides that were triggered by torrential rain. Officials worry another section of the mountainside could collapse at any time.
The Afghan military flew rescue teams to the area on Saturday, as the remote mountain region is served by only narrow, poor roads which have themselves been damaged by more than a week of heavy rain.
"We have managed to get one excavator into the area, but digging looks hopeless," Colonel Abdul Qadeer Sayad, a deputy police chief of Badakhshan, told Reuters.
He said the sheer size of the area affected, and the depth of the mud, meant that only modern machinery could help.
NATO-led coalition troops are on standby to assist but on Saturday said the Afghan government had not asked for help.
"I call on the government to come and help our people, to take the bodies out," said a middle-aged man, standing on a hill overlooking the river of mud where his village once stood.
"We managed to take out only 10 to 15 people, the rest of our villagers here are trapped."
Freezing conditions
Hundreds of people camped out overnight in near freezing conditions, although some were given tents. Officials distributed food and water.
U.S. President Barack Obama said American forces were on standby to help. About 30,000 U.S. soldiers remain in Afghanistan, although that number is falling as Washington prepares to withdraw all combat troops who battled Taliban insurgents by the end of this year.
Sources
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/afghan-landslide-rescue-now-focuses-on...
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/05/03/badakhshan-landslide-1/
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/05/massive-landslide-buries...
May 3, 2014
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-...
May 6, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://www.reportersubang.com/2014/05/puluhan-hektar-sawah-terancam...
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...
May 8, 2014
Howard
Keonhar India Landslip Fuels Panic (May 7)
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...
May 11, 2014
Howard
Cedar River Near Seattle Closed by Massive Landslide (May 10)
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
May 12, 2014
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...
May 18, 2014
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.
May 23, 2014
Howard
Three missing in 'unbelievably big' mudslide in Colorado (May 25)
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.
“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...
May 26, 2014
Andrey Eroshin
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2014/05/05/ab-barak-1/
May 27, 2014