A nine story apartment building in Guiyang city, China collapsed last week following heavy rains. Officials noted a landslide or mudslides were the apparent cause. There were as many as 16 people missing as rescuers searched the rubble of the 35 family residential building. [Source: Shanghaiist.com via USGS Landslide Events. Image: Shanghaiist.com]
Related Articles
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. […]
Soledad Mountain Road Landslide Update
Residents of approximately 75 of the 111 homes evacuated after the slide have been allowed back into their homes. The City of San Diego is not wasting any time in determining the cause of the slide. The first of three 100-ft deep exploration shafts was excavated on Friday, and a Forensic Geologist from a firm hired by the City was sent down the hole to observe geology conditions and to locate the actual slip surface. Also, claims of leaking City water and/or sewer pipes prior to the failure have begun to surface. More details in the full post. (Photo by NELVIN CEPEDA / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Weekend CUP April 26, 2010
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! […]