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.
Hazards & Disasters
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, […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The evolution of the Wanlixi landslide in Taiwan
Planet Labs satellite imagery highlights how the Wanlixi landslide in Taiwan evolved prior to the main failure on 21 June, and how it has continued to move subsequently. On 31 July 2026 I highlighted the valley-blocking Wanlixi landslide in Hualien County, Taiwan. The location of the landslide is 23.78859° N, 121.27236° E (for machine readable […]
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Participation Challenges May Limit Conservation Incentive Programs
Landowners in North Carolina are interested in adopting conservation practices that reduce flood risk but are discouraged by time-consuming conservation programs that are difficult to navigate.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 4 July 2026 landslide disaster at Cantzama in Ecuador
On 4 July 2026, 19 people were killed in a massive landslide in Zamora Chinchipe province, Ecuador. Planet Labs imagery shows that this was caused by a c.1 km long landslide that occurred 13 km upstream of Cantzama. This transitioned into a channelised debris flow that destroyed the community. On 4 July 2026, a massive […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The July 2005 rainfall-induced landslides in Yangshan (the Yang Mountains) in China
Extreme rainfall in July 2025 triggered numerous landslides and debris flows that killed over 60 people. Between 23 and 29 July 2025, the Yanshan (Yan Mountain) [41.0, 120.0] area of Hebei Province in China suffered extreme rainfall that triggered extensive flooding and landslides. As is so often the case in China, I found it difficult to […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
Fatal landslides in July 2026
In July 2026 I recorded 48 fatal landslides causing 413 fatalities. This year continues to be atypical in terms of the temporal pattern of fatal landslides. This is my regular update for the number of fatal global landslides, focusing on July 2026. As usual, this data has been collected in line with the methodology described […]
Posted inResearch & Developments
Climate Change Made This Summer’s Canadian Wildfires Twice as Likely
Wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and the Northwest Territories have burned more than 3.9 million hectares this summer, prompted widespread evacuation orders, and created poor air quality for not only Canadians, but more than 120 million people across the midwestern and northeastern United States. The fires spread exceptionally quickly, stressing the resources of local response agencies. About 700 fires are still active across Canada.
According to a new analysis, human-induced climate change and its contribution to fire conditions across Canada made these fires twice as likely to occur. The report is from World Weather Attribution, an international climate science partnership.