The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
Over the weekend just past, another substantial area of movement has developed in the Undercliff area of the Isle of Wight in southern England. I have featured landslides in the Undercliff before – this is an area of ancient landslides that is heavily populated. Reactivations occur quite regularly, but the exceptional rainfall of the winter of 2023-24 has induced substantial instability in a number of areas.
The latest movement is reported by both the Island Echo and the Isle of Wight County Press. The Island Echo has a useful article with images of some of the areas of instability that shows substantial numbers of tension cracks and areas of ground movement on roads and around houses. A number of people have left their homes.
The news articles report that the Isle of Wight Council is assisting local residents, but also note that the landslide is occurring on private land.
It appears that the main road affected is Old Park Road between the junctions with Woolverton Road and Hunts Road. The latter has also been affected. These roads can be seen on the Google Earth image below:-
Surveys will be undertaken today to understand the movement, and I hope that better imagery will also become available so that it is possible to understand the scale of the movement better. Available information does not really allow this at the moment.
Meanwhile, there is immense frustration over at the Bonchurch Landslide site, a few kilometres along the coast. Monitoring by Jacobs on behalf of the Council indicates that the slope is still moving, meaning that the road cannot be reopened at present. This is causing considerable disruption and uncertainty to the local people, but in light of the instability it is the right call.