Construction or maintenance personnel and a geotechnical engineer narrowly avoided being a victim of a new landslide at the site of a landslide cleanup. They were attempting to clean up a landslide on the State Highway 2 in the Waioeka Gorge, New Zealand when spotters noticed the area becoming unstable. The workers were pulled back and had to ‘run for it’, but one worker was swept away by the slide while still in his excavator and two other excavators were partially engulfed. The man was able to safely get out of the cab of the excavator. [Source: Otago Daily Times Online News. Image: NewstalkZB]
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Rockslide Closes I-40 in Western North Carolina
A massive rockslide closed a busy interstate route last week near the border between Tennessee and North Carolina in Pigeon River Gorge. This area has had landslide problems in the past. In 1997 a rockslide in the same area closed the freeway for approximately 3 months. (Photo from Landslides Under a Microscope Blog, original source not cited)
I have yet to see volume estimates, but The Charlotte Observer quoted a highway patrol officer who was at the scene:
He said the roadway is covered by a gigantic mound of debris, from pebbles up to house-sized boulders. The pile is 40 to 50 feet high, Williamson estimated, and hundreds of feet long.
More info and video after the break. […]
Geologic Hazard Photos
The National Geodetic Data Center (NGDC) of NOAA has an online collection of photos of various geologic hazards. Many of the photos are from older sets of 35mm slides that have been digitized. They are free to use provided you credit the photographer and the NGDC as the source. The would be really useful for educators and for powerpoint presentations. The only drawback is that they are in TIF format and some of them could use some retouching. (Photo by University of Colorado, made available by NOAA/NGDC)