Seismic analysis to understand the 13 February 2024 Çöpler Gold Mine Landslide, Erzincan, Türkiye
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. On 13 February 2024, the enormous Çöpler Gold Mine Landslide occurred in Erzincan, Türkiye (Turkey), killing nine miners. This was the first of two massive and immensely damaging heap leach mine failures last year (the other occurred in Canada). That such an event could occur has come as something of surprise to many people, so there is intense interest in understanding the circumstances of the failure. I posted about the landslide at the time, and subsequently: At…
Images of the source of the 28 April 2025 landslide / GLOF at Vallunaraju in Peru
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. A few days ago I highlighted the severe landslide and GLOF that occurred on the flanks of Vallunaraju in Peru, on 28 April 2025, which caused substantial damage and at least two fatalities. This appears to have been initiated by a landslide on the mountain flanks, triggering a hazard chain that led to the disaster downstream. Loyal reader Christopher Cluett kindly got in touch. He was climbing on the flanks of the mountain when the chain of…
Patterns of fatal non-seismic rockfalls in Spain
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. A fascinating new paper (Corominas et al. 2025) has just been published in the journal Geoenvironmental Disasters that describes the compilation and analysis of a new dataset on fatal non-seismic rockfalls in Spain. The dataset extends back for 220 years – a remarkable feat in itself – although the detailed analysis focuses on a 150 year period between 1872 and 2021. Even better, the paper has been published open access and under a creative commons license, which…
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Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull 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.