Landslide Blocks Road in LA, Inconveniences UCLA Hoops Fans

Some juicy geoengineering news items in this post. I could turn just about all of them into a separate blog post if I had time, maybe I still will for some of them. Don’t miss this list! All of the links are active when you view it on the site. If you’re looking at this in your RSS feed reader or on your daily email, you won’t see the actual links, sorry.

• San Diego settles landslide suits for $284,000 – San Jose Mercury News
• Slip On Weak Layer – GEO-SLOPE International Ltd.
  An example analysis using SLOPE/W software.
• UK’s first commercial scale geothermal power plant set to start construction in October – Ground Engineering (GE) Magazine
• Some reflections on the Eyjafjallajoekull ash cloud – Dave’s Landslide Blog
  As usual, Dr. Dave has some great insights into this geologic hazard that is currently dominating the news.
• Port of Miami tunnel project on track for June start – MiamiHerald.com via ASCE SmartBrief
• Louisiana receives $81.5 million in new federal aid for repair of roads and bridges damaged by Hurricane Katrina – NOLA.com
• New imagery from the Qinghai earthquake | Google Earth Blog
• Geogrids remedy poor site soils at World Cup stadium in South Africa – Geosynthetics Magazine
• Geo-Engineering Reconnaissance of the February 27, 2010 Maule, Chile Earthquake, Version 1: April 15, 2010 – Geoengineer.org Press Center
  The GEER is an NSF-funded group that was created to collect perishable data in the wake of extreme events (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, or floods) in the interests of learning from the events to advance the state of geoengineering practice. This report on the earthquake was produced by over 40 lead authors and contributing authors from universities and consulting companies around the world.
• A Decade of Safety Success, March/April 2010 Public Roads

…And 13 more! […]

Fellow geo-blogger David Petley of Durham University posted today about the 105th anniversary of the Frank Landslide in Canada. The slide had an estimated volume of 30 million cubic meters and took all of about […]

The USGS has a documentary on landslide video on landslide danger in the San Francisco Bay area entitled “Riding the Storm”. I think the target audience is more general than geologist or engineer, but it is still interesting. The bullet points from the USGS site:

• A catastrophic 1982 rainstorm triggered 18,000 landslides in the Bay Area, claiming 25 lives and causing $66 million in property damage
• The combination of steep slopes, weak rocks, and intense winter storms make Bay Area uplands an ideal setting for landslides
• Landslides include both swift, potentially deadly debris flows and slower, but destructive deepseated slides
• Learn what USGS scientists have discovered about landslide dynamics and which slopes are most susceptible to sliding
• Hear the devastating stories of Bay Area residents affected by landslides and learn to recognize the danger signs

Click through to view the trailer and for links to download the full video. (Image credit: USGS)

[…]