The catastrophic debris flow that struck Nepal and Tibet today was triggered by the collapse of a glacier high in the mountains. Loyal readers will have seen the footage of the catastrophic debris flow that struck parts of Tibet and Nepal today, 26 August 2026. There is a variety of sources, of which the CCTV […]
Hazards & Disasters
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Long-Term Datasets are Essential to Understanding Coastal Change
A multi-decadal field dataset combined with reduced-complexity modeling approach highlights the importance of shoreline change in controlling alongshore variability of dune evolution.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Why Marine Heat Waves and Acidification Strike Together
A chemistry tug-of-war between ocean acidity and carbon in warming oceans determines when and where these damaging events strike.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 18 August 2026 gold mine landslide at the Zamboye (Zamboï) mining site in the Central African Republic
At least 107 people were killed in major failure at an artisinal mine on the border with Cameroon. In the afternoon of 18 August 2026, a large landsldie occurred at an artisinal gold mine at Zamboye (also spelt Zamboï) in the Central African Republic. The landslide was caught on videos that have been widely shared […]
Posted inEditors' Vox
Decoding the Origins of Lightning’s Violent Currents
A compact set of physical equations delivers a unified, first-principles explanation for how lightning’s most destructive surge of current is born, races towards the clouds, and fades.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The report of the external review commissioned by Tauranga City Council into the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park landslide
The external review of the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park landslide is extremely critical of the local authority in their approach to the management of the well-documented landslide hazard and risk at the site. The external review commissioned by Tauranga City Council (TCC) into the 22 January 2026 Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park landslide released […]
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Drought Extremes are Intensifying More Rapidly Than in the Past
Twenty ensemble members from a 600-year climate simulation reveal that drought extremes are intensifying more rapidly than in the past with respect to moderate droughts.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
Images of the aftermath of the 13 August 2026 tailings storage facility failure at the Semancor Dikwena Chrome Mine in South Africa
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. On social media, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Republic of South Africa has released two aerial images of the aftermath of the 13 August 2026 tailings storage facility failure at […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 13 August 2026 tailings storage facility failure at Dikwena Chrome in South Africa
A major tailings accident occurred last week in a Chrome mine at Dikwena near Brits. On 13 August 20926, a major failure occurred in a large tailings storage facility at the Dikwena facility, owned by Samancor Chrome in the Brits area of South Africa. There are news reports from IOL and the Daily Maverick about this […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
Patterns in time and space of fatal coastal cliff failures
A new analysis (Reiss et al. 2026) explores a global database of fatal coastal cliff failures, showing that these tragic events most frequently occur in the summer months when beaches are heavily populated. One significant type of fatal landslide is coastal cliff failures. Whilst I have recorded a number of these events through the years, […]