Landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka
Satellite images are revealing the scale of the destruction in Sri Lanka caused by landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah at the end of November 2025. At the end of November 2025, a “weak” tropical cyclone, subsequently named Cyclone Ditwah, formed just offshore from Sri Lanka. Over the following day the storm tracked around the south and east coasts of Sri Lanka before moving northwards to dissipate on 3 December off the east coast of India. This was not a strong tropical cyclone, but it brought catastrophic rainfall to Sri Lanka, triggering extremely extensive landslides and floods. The stats on the…
Full Planet imagery of the 4 November 2025 landslide at Mae Moh Mine in Thailand
Over the weekend, Planet captured near-perfect images of the Mae Moh Mine landslide in Thailand. Last week, I posted a set of Planet satellite images that captured most of the 4 November 2025 landslide at Mae Moh Mine in Thailand. However, there was considerable cloud in the imagery, which prevented a full understanding of the landslide. Over the last few days, near perfect conditions have allowed a full, cloud-free image to be captured by Planet:- This image is a composite of two sets captured on 22 and 23 November 2025. The crown of the landslider is on the west side,…
Planet imagery of the 4 November 2025 landslide at Mae Moh Mine in Thailand
Planet imagery shows the massive coal waste landslide at Mae Moh Mine. The failure was about 4.8 km long and 1.4 km wide As I noted in an earlier post on this blog, at about 4 am on 4 November 2025, a very large landslide occurred in a coal waste pile at the Mae Moh Mine in Thailand. News reports have indicated that this failure, which occurred in a slope formed from coal waste material, caused significant damage. Unfortunately, this area is very often cloudy, so obtaining good satellite imagery is a challenge. However, Planet captured an image on 15…
Satellite imagery of the 11 November 2025 landslide at Hongqi Bridge in China
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. Satellite company Blacksky has released a high resolution satellite image, captured on 12 November 2025, showing the aftermath of the 11 November 2025 landslide at Hongqi Bridge in China. The image was…
The 11 November 2025 landslide at Hongqi Bridge in China
A large landslide has destroyed a 662 m long highway viaduct in China. Over the last two days there has been considerable media coverage of a large, highly destructive rockslide that occurred at Hongqi Bridge in Sichuan Province, China. There is a very interesting set of images of the bridge during construction on the Highest…
Global fatal landslides in August 2025
In August 2025, I recorded 104 fatal landslides leading to 2,365 fatalities, a record total number of landslides for August. Loyal readers will know that each year, August is one of the two peak months for fatal landslides. In 2025, I recorded 104 fatal landslides leading to 2,365 fatalities (but please see below as I…
Pikillaqta in Cusco: the role of an earthquake-induced debris flow in about 900 AD
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. According to Wikipedia, Pikillaqta is a large archaeological site located 20 km to the east of Cusco in Peru. Inhabited by the Wari people, it was abandoned at about 900 AD for…
The 4 November 2025 landslide at Mae Moh Mine in Thailand
A landslide in coal waste covering about a square kilometre was triggered by heavy rainfall. At about 4 am on 4 November 2025, a very large landslide occurred in a coal waste pile at the Mae Moh Mine in Thailand. This is an extremely large coal mining site that is co-located with electricity generating plants.…
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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.