Geology News
Landslides Current Events

AccuWeather.com has an article about a subdivision in Lakeport, California where a landslide moving at a rate of inches per day is tearing homes apart.

An article in the Salt Lake City Tribune compares the landslide at the Bingham Canyon copper mine to other large landslides that have occurred during recorded history.

Related: World’s Largest Landslide

The city of Piedmont is suing some of its residents over a landslide (triggered by improper drainage) that shut down a street and required costly clean-up.

Heavy rains are blamed for triggering many landslides in the southern part of the UK this spring. This BBC video visits a landslide on the Dorset Coast where tons of chalk have fallen to the beach.

Homeowners in Oregon unsuccessfully tried to collect damages from their insurance company and their county after a landslide ruined their hillside home.

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Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide

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This Ski-Powder.com video clearly shows the speed and power of an avalanche. It appears to have been filmed by a climber who calmly filmed the event and panned up and down the chute to show final streams of snow and water. An instant rainbow formed when the snow hit the river.

The Alaska Dispatch has an article with photos that tell the story of a landslide covering the Black Rapids Glacier during the 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake.

Another Ski-Powder.com avalanche video. This one of a large avalanche triggered by an explosive charge. In the beginning of the video look for the tiny white helicopter on the very right side of the screen. The crew is planting the charge. Then when you see the shot go off start counting until you hear the sound. Now you know how far away the camera was from the source of the slide.

ABC News has an article that looks at the status of the Bingham Canyon copper mine after a landslide has cut off production from the pit and will have the company excavating landslide debris instead of ore.

Most homeowners insurance policies have exclusions that make them worthless when the home is damaged by common geologic problems such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, mine subsidence, cavern collapse and expansive soils. When a home is damaged the homeowner often is surprised that his “all perils” policy has these exclusions.

Dave Petley has a post about the massive landslide at the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. Discussed are the landslide detection system used to predict the slide and the speculated financial impact of the slide.

The California Geological Survey has a collection of landslide hazard maps online for viewing as pdf documents. They are plotted on 7.5 minute topographic maps.

A landslide that was anticipated finally occurred in Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. No one was injured.

A passenger train in Washington was hit by a landslide. Although several cars were derailed, they remained upright and no one was injured.

The Colorado Geological Suvey shares aerial images of two ancient landslides that consist of about 635,000,000 cubic feet of mobilized debris and cover an area of about 2.3 square miles.

Do you know about sackungen? Learn about them on the Leadville Geology Facebook page. They are produced by a combination of glacial action and gravity.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources is reporting on the Whidbey Island landslide. They have links to photo collections, official report, the best “before/after” image pair we have seen, geologic map and more.

A large landslide on Washington’s Whidbey Island has destroyed one home and threatens several others.

Dave Petley has several photos and comments about the landslide on Whidbey Island.

Dave Petley has a well illustrated blog post about the role that joints play in controlling rockfalls. Photos are at Iceland’s Gullfoss waterfall.

A section of Highway 89 between Page and Flagstaff was damaged by a slide. The Arizona Geology Blog has several posts about the slide.

A larger collection of photos is posted on the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Facebook page.

Dave Petley has geological commentary on The Landslide Blog.

A guy tries to steal a taxi but drives down a closed road and runs into a landslide.

Dave Petley has several photos and a description of the large landslide that severely damaged US Route 441 (Newfound Gap Road) in North Carolina.

This video shows a large landslide with impressive runout on Mount Dixon in the Mount Cook National Park of New Zealand. For detailed comments, maps and photos visit The Landslide Blog.

“On Jan. 8, 1906, the ground around the waterfront in Haverstraw slid into a giant sinkhole. Years of digging up river clay for the area’s brickyards went too far, as a crescent-shaped pit at least 150 feet deep opened up and swallowed five streets, two blocks and 21 buildings.” Quoted from the LoHud.com article.

An article and video on the StGeorgeUtah.com website describes how a slow-moving landslide has caused problems for residents of the Gardens South Condominiums and the solution that they hope will stop the movement.

Utah Geological Survey Landslide Hazard Map

A landslide near Seattle, Washington derailed a freight train on Monday. This Associated Press video shows the impact and aftermath.

Did you know that the NOAA website has a tabulation of “Watches, Warnings and Advisories” for each of the 50 states? These include blizzard warnings, avalanche warnings, fire weather watches, wind advisories and much more.

“Debris flows are hazardous flows of rock, sediment and water that surge down mountain slopes and into adjacent valleys. Hydrologist Richard Iverson describes the nature of debris-flow research and explains how debris flow experiments are conducted at the USGS Debris Flow Flume.” Quoted from the USGS video release.