Landslide News

Sinkhole opening up on Hunza Valley’s Attabad landslide dam

A massive landslide which killed 19 people in Attabad, northern Pakistan early this year, also formed a natural dam blocking the fast flowing Hunza River, and creating a lake that is drowning upstream villages as it expand. See original entry. Collapse of the dam would result in a major catastrophe for thousands of people living in downstream villages.

People wait for boats at a lake created after a massive landslide block the Hunza River in Attabad, northern Pakistan. The river has now turned into a lake that is consuming upstream as it expands. If dam breaks, a flash flood could threaten downstream villages. Photo dated  Thursday March 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Shabbir Ahmed Mir). Image may be subject to copyright. Click image to enlarge.

The lake level is rising at a rate of about 40cm per day. Photo Source: The Express Tribune. Image may be subject to copyright. For more information click here.

On March 16, 2010, ALI on NASA’s EO-1 satellite captured this true-color image of the lake created by the landslide of January 4. (Note that north is on the right.) Dark rock covers the river in the upper left corner of the image, and the turquoise V-shaped lake stretches out behind the slide. Near the temporary lake, the Karakoram Highway is a faint meandering line of pale brown. A bridge across the Hunza River has been submerged by the rising waters. The bridge connects the settlements of Shaskat (or Shiskit) and Gulmit on the region’s only route to and from China. Image and Caption: NASA. Download large image (3 MB, JPEG)

Azerbaijan

A landslide  in the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan buried a house  killing four members of a family. The landslide occurred in the Garibli village in the Tovuz region about 420 kilometers from the capital Baku at 6:00am local time on April 27, The Azerbaijani Emergency Situations Ministry reported.

Photo: Trend. Image may be subject to copyright.

• Five corpses dragged from rubble in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz

Vietnam

A landslide caused by heavy rains killed three children, aged between 2 and 10,  in their bed  in the northern province of Ha Giang, Vietnam, an official was quoted as saying.

A search is ongoing for the mother and another nine-year-old boy, local district official Nguyen Thi Duoc said, adding that the family was from the Hmong ethnic minority.

The monsoon usually hits the country between July and November, but strong rains at other times of the year also sometimes cause landslides, particularly in remote mountainous areas.

UK: Large part of Cornwall coastal footpath collapses

A large section of the cliff-face collapsed on to the seashore below. No-one was on the pathway when landslide occurred.

Government geologist Richard Hocking said that the area had had a problem “for a while. …  “The actual fault plane wasn’t obvious when I inspected it a couple of weeks ago, so it’s caught us out a little bit.” Photo: BBC. Image may be subject to copyright.

Taiwan Freeway Landslide Update

KEELUNG REEWAY, TAIWAN – Dozens of excavators dig in massive landslide searching for missing people on the Taiwan Freeway outside the northeastern port of Keelung. At least three cars are believed to be buried underneath thousands of tons of rocks and earth. Photo released by  National Airborne Service Corps. Click image to enlarge.

As of Wednesday morning (UTC+8 hrs), four bodies had been dug out of the massive landslide that had buried the No. 3 National Freeway in northern Taiwan, the Keelung City Fire Bureau was quoted as saying.

Landslide in Kakheti Region, Georgia,  after a week of torrential rain

“The heavy rain caused a landslide in the Telavi district`s village of Shalaubani. In addition, the flood has damaged the reservoir of the drinking water in the same village, leaving locals without the water supply.”

Related Links:

• Taiwan Massive Landslide Buries 6-Lane Freeway
• Landslide Fear Shuts Down Part of 10 Fwy in Pomona
• Mudslide Buries Chemical Factory in China
• Storms, Extreme Rain Events, Floods, Landslides
• Additional photos of the landslide

Other Landslide News:

• More than five families have been asked to leave an area that was recently hit by a landslide.

• Sinkhole opens up on Hunza Valley’s Attabad landslide dam

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