The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
In the morning of 22 July 2024, a pair of landslides struck Gofa Zone in Ethiopia. News reports indicate that at least 55 people have been killed, whilst it is thought that more people are likely to have been buried. Reuters has an early news report about the landslide, whilst the Ethiopian Broadcasting Committee has posted some images of the landslide on Facebook.
The 22 July 2024 landslide in Ethiopia. Image posted to Facebook by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.
Interestingly, news reports include a variety of images, some of which are clearly from other incidents. I am unsure as to which is correct, but I am assuming that the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation is most likely to be reporting faithfully.
The location is reported to have been Kencho Shacha Gozdi, Gofa Zone, Geze Gofa District. Gofa Zone is in the area of [6.4167, 36.9167], but the precise location is unclear.
Reports indicate that the incident was triggered by heavy rainfall. An initial landslide is thought to have buried a number of local people, possibly at around 5 am. Rescue operations, involving people from outside the immediate area, were underway at about 10 am when the second landslide occurred, again burying an unknown number of people.
If the image above is correct, then the failure is in deeply weathered soil, possibly with the failure initiating in the mid-slope area, and then entraining material from the lower slope. It is notable that the slope has been deforested.
The perils of secondary failures, which overwhelm responders to landslides, are insufficiently documented.
Hazards in Taiwan from Typhoon Gaemi
Meanwhile, the first very major damaging typhoon of the season, named Gaemi, has formed in the west Pacific and is now heading towards the northwest. Current estimates suggest that it will make landfall in NE Taiwan on 24 July. The forecast track will take the eye close to the area affected by the 3 April 2024 Mw=7,4 earthquake. As Typhoon Gaemi will generate large amounts of rainfall, we are likely to see landslides and debris flows in the earthquake affected area, especially Taroko National Park, over the next few days. This will be very perilous.
James Reynolds (Earth Uncut TV) has positioned himself in the path of the storm:-
Hello from the north coast of Taiwan – here to cover #typhoon #Gaemi. The storm’s about 36hrs out from landfall in the Yilan / Suao region so I’ll be staying put in this area for now, watching it closely pic.twitter.com/6AImEI8T8H— James Reynolds (@EarthUncutTV) July 23, 2024
The next few days will be interesting there. The storm is then likely to strike China, which has already been severely affected by landslides this year.
Text © 2023. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
Related