5-mile-long landslide in Alaska national park

[Voyageur]

The following article appeared in Sott:
5-mile-long landslide in Alaska national park
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/248103-5-mile-long-landslide-in-Alaska-national-park

and yesterday a similar, albeit smaller and likely fatal event, happened nearby in BC. With the heavy rains in the north in June, unstable and potentially unstable slopes have become saturated with rotational slumps appearing here and there in areas not normally susceptible. The up slope start zone on this is very similar to the one in Alaska.

Search resumes for 4 missing in B.C. landslide

…The search for four people assumed caught in Thursday's landslide in southeastern B.C. resumed Friday afternoon and was to continue until dark, and then resume at first light Saturday morning, officials say.

More landslides earlier Friday had delayed the ground search for a father, his two adult daughters and a German woman believed to be trapped by a landslide that roared down a mountainside in southeastern B.C….

_http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/13/bc-landslide-search-johnsons-landing.html

 

[Voyageur]

Came across this as it relates to the Johnson Landing slide:

Agu Blogosphere

Dave Petley is the Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His blog provides a commentary on landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.[/b]

_http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2012/07/13/a-probably-fatal-landslide-in-johnsons-landing-kootenay-lake-bc-canada-yesterday/

Indeed it was fatal for the people living there.

A slightly intriguing aspect of this event is that the weather at the time of the event is reported to have been sunny and warm (although there has been a lot of rain recently). Even more intriguing is the fact that just a few minutes before the landslide, at 10:22 am local time, the USGS recorded a small earthquake in BC that they are describing as a quarry blast. [need to check this out further] Initially I wondered whether this might be the seismic signature of this event. However, the location is reported to be about 275 km from Johnsons Landing, although I am not sufficiently au fait with seismic data to be able to state the likely location error. Just to be clear though, it is highly unlikely that the recorded seismic event was the trigger for the landslide, and there is a high chance that it is completely unrelated. I would be interested to hear the views of those with more experience of seismic data than me.

Think these things can be very much related, even from those distances. However, the USGA, as Dave said, is calling it a;

M2.6 Quarry Blast - 6km S of Princeton, Canada 2012-07-12 10:22:54 UTC-07:00 at epicenter

_http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/uw60425267#summary

Coincidence?

Then on July 15th, 2012 on almost the exact latitude (a few seconds north and 60 km. east this event happened;

Mudslide hits Fairmont Hot Springs, B.C.

_http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/15/bc-fairmont-hot-springs-mudslide.html

Here is a couple of photo's from the creek bed and site:






This was actually a debris torrent (initiated high in the mountain above) that trapped 400 – 600 people at a campground while the creek bed was scoured in boulders, trees and water running that then fanning out into a resort complex. Incredibly, no one was injured.

Here is a map of the event sites: "A" is Johnson Landing and Fairmont Hot Springs is to the right above the highway 95 sign at the top of the lake.



Today, SotT posted this second slide at Johnson Landing that narrowly missed a news crew:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/248365-Incredible-moment-a-Canadian-news-crew-narrowly-escaped-devastating-landslide-while-investigating-another-earlier-landslide