The 31 October 2025 landslide at Kukas in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
An early morning landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall, killed at least 22 people in rural PNG. At about 2 am on 31 October 2025, a landslide struck a rural community at Kukas in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. News reports suggest that it was triggered by heavy rainfall and that 22 bodies have been recovered to date, but that the final toll may be as high as 30 people. Loyal readers will know that tracking down landslides in rural PNG is a major challenge – the quality of baseline mapping of villages is quite poor. However, an ABC News report…
The 22 May 2025 Qingyang landslide in Guizhou Province, China
A c1.4 million cubic metre landslide, triggered by intense rainfall, killed 19 people. On 22 May 2025, the large Qingyang landslide occurred in Dafang County, Guizhou Province, China. This landslide was widely reported to have “trapped” 19 people. In a paper in the journal Landslides, Wen et al. (2025) provide an initial but very helpful description of this failure. It confirms that 19 people were indeed killed in the event. In the aftermath of the landslide, Xinhua published this image of the failure:- The crown of the landslide is at [27.52004, 105.83551]. There is some drone footage of the landslide…
Some useful tools for monitoring the evolution and behaviour of Hurricane Melissa
Various online datasets will allow a detailed understanding of Hurricane Melissa as it impacts Jamaica and then Cuba Hurricane Melissa is now making headlines around the world in anticipation of its landfall today. As always with tropical cyclones, the picture is evolving continuously as the storm evolves. Their behaviour is highly complex. I thought I’d highlight some useful tools for monitoring the evolution and behaviour of Hurricane Melissa. First, of course, NOAA CPHC provides a range of graphics, some of which are adaptable. This includes the forecast track of the centre of the storm, the forecast earliest arrival time of…
Anticipating the impact of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa is bearing down on Jamaica, with many areas likely to see over 500 mm of rainfall. The impacts could be extremely significant. Hurricane Melissa has strengthened substantially over the weekend, and is now on course to track across Jamaica in the next couple of days. Various media agencies have identified the threats that…
The giant Tupaasat rock avalanche in South Greenland
A new paper describes a rock avalanche in Greenland about 10,900 years BP that had a volume of over 1 billion cubic metres and that travelled almost 16 kilometres. A fascinating paper (Pedersen et al. 2026) has just been published in the journal Geomorphology that describes a newly-discovered ancient rock avalanche in Greenland. This landslide,…
Another landslide dam flood at the site of the Matai’an rock avalanche in Taiwan
Failure of the landslide debris from the Matai’an rock avalanche allowed another barrier lake to form. This breached on 21 October 2025, generating another damaging debris flow. Newspapers in Taiwan are reporting that a new landslide barrier lake formed and then failed at the site of the giant Matai’an rock avalanche. The breach event apparently…
The 12 July 2024 landslide cluster in Pengshui County, Chongqing, China
About 140 mm triggered 143 landslides in an area of about 10 km2, killing two people. Loyal readers will have noticed that I’m fascinated by dense clusters of landslides triggered by intense rainfall (or earthquakes). Over the years, I have written about these on multiple occasions, but increasing numbers are being described in the literature.…
The 22 May 1960 earthquake-induced landslides and tsunami at Lake Rupanco in Chile
Reconstruction of landslides on the banks of Lake Rupanco in Chile, triggered by the 22 May 1960 Mw-9.5 earthquake, suggests that a slope failure with a volume of 161 million cubic metres triggered a tsunami with a maximum amplitude of 33.3 metres. About 120 people were killed. A very interesting paper (Quiroga et al. 2025)…
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About Dave
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor and President of Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.