The Mai Mahiu landslide disaster in Kenya
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. On 29 April 2024, a devastating debris flow swept through Mai Mahui in Kenya. The latest reports indicate that 48 people were killed and 84 people are missing. The disaster was triggered by heavy rainfall, but there has been considerable misreporting of the cause, with many outlets describing the event as a dam burst. The valley that was the source of the accident is located above the town of Kijabe at [-0.9186, 36.5949]. This is a Google…
Landslides from the record-breaking 2023 storms in Auckland, New Zealand
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. In January and February 2023, the largest city in New Zealand, Auckland, and its surrounding area was affected by two extraordinary rainfall events, triggering many thousands of landslides. In an open access paper just published in the journal Landslides (Brook and Nicoll 2024), Martin Brook and Chris Nicoll provide a brief but fascinating review of these two incidents. The implications for New Zealand are stark. The first of the rainfall events, on 27 January 2022, was an…
Landslides on the Shakadang Trail, Taroko, Taiwan
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. It is unsurprising that the news cycle has mostly moved on from the 3 April 2024 Hualien earthquake in Taiwan. On the ground, activity continues to deal with the aftermath of the many landslides triggered by the earthquake, with a particular focus on Taroko National Park. The road through the gorge, Highway 8, which links the east and west costs of Taiwan, remains closed and is likely to remain in that state until at least July. Meanwhile,…
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About Dave
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.