Climate Policy WatcherExamples of landslide disasters
Mass wasting is one of the most costly of natural hazards, with the slow downslope creep of material causing billions of dollars in damage to properties every year in the United States. Earth movements do not kill many people in most years, but occasionally massive landslides take thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lives. Mass wasting is becoming more of a hazard in the United States as people move in great numbers from the plains into mountainous areas as population increases. This trend is expected to continue in the future, and more mass-wasting events like those described in this chapter may be expected every year. Good engineering practices and understanding of the driving forces of mass wasting will hopefully prevent many mass-wasting events, but it will be virtually impossible to stop the costly gradual downslope creep of material, especially in areas with freeze thaw cycles.
Examining the details of a few of the more significant mass-wasting events of different types, including a translational slide, a rockfall-debris avalanche, a mudflow, and whole scale collapse of an entire region is useful to help mitigate future landslide disasters. In this section lessons that can be learned from each different landslide are discussed with the aim that education can save lives in the future. The table "Significant Landslide Disasters" lists some of the more significant landslide and mass-wasting disasters with
SIGNIFICANT LANDSLIDE DISASTERS
|
Where |
When |
Trigger Process |
How Many Deaths |
|
Shaanxi Province, China |
1556 |
m. 8 earthquake |
830,000 |
|
Shaanxi Province, China |
1920 |
earthquake |
200,000 |
|
Sichuan Province, China |
2008 |
m. 7.9 earthquake |
87,587 |
|
Nevados Huascarán, Peru |
1970 |
m. 7.7 earthquake |
70,000 |
|
Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia |
1985 |
volcanic eruption |
20,000 |
|
Tadzhik Republic |
1949 |
m.7.5 earthquake |
12,000-20,000 |
|
Honduras, Nicaragua |
1998 |
heavy rain |
10,000 |
|
Venezuela |
1999 |
10,000 | |
|
Nevados Huascarán, Peru |
1962 |
4,000-5,000 | |
|
Vaiont, Italy |
1963 |
heavy rain |
3,000 |
|
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
1966-67 |
heavy rain |
2,700 |
|
Mount Coto, Switzerland |
1618 |
2,430 | |
|
Cauca, Colombia |
1994 |
m. 6.4 earthquake |
1,971 |
|
Serra das Araras, Brazil |
1967 |
heavy rain |
1,700 |
|
Leyte, Philippines |
2006 |
heavy rain |
1,450 |
|
Kure, Japan |
1945 |
1,145 | |
|
Shizuoka, Japan |
1958 |
heavy rain |
1,094 |
|
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
1966 |
heavy rain |
1,000 |
|
Napo, Ecuador |
1987 |
m. 6.1 and 6.9 earthquakes |
1,000 |
more than 1,000 deaths reported, with a bias toward events of the last 100 years.
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