Why is Papua New Guinea so susceptible to landslides? Steep terrain, earthquakes and aftershocks plus recent seasonal rains have created an environment that is prone to collapse.
Searching for victims after a rain-triggered mudslide that blanketed a village and killed at least 178 people in north China’s Shanxi province, Sept. 13, 2008.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
A. Joshua West, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
While the Montecito, California mudslides took 20 lives, landslides kill far more people in developing countries. Tighter construction standards and early warning systems could help reduce their toll.
As many as 20 people are dead and dozens missing following the Southern California mudslides.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
In response to mudslides that have killed at least 20 people in Southern California, a geologist calls for more resources to study and map landslide hazards so residents can understand the risks.
The Byron Scar, left behind by an undersea landslide. Colours indicate depths.
Samantha Clarke
The ocean floor off Australia’s east coast bears the scars of numerous subsea landslides, which have potentially triggered tsunamis over the past several millennia.
The hillside near Regent, outside Freetown, hit by a mudslide.
Ernest Henry/EPA
Mass graves are being dug for hundreds of those killed in a nation once more gripped by grief.
Motorway sign warning of Tsunami, Wellington after a 7.5 earthquake based around Cheviot in the South island shock the New Zealand capital.
AAP Image/SNPA, Ross Setford
Landslide researchers continue to learn more about how and where these events occur. It’s trickier to figure out how to minimize potential damage to human communities from future landslides.
Landslides happen everywhere and in different geological locations. This can be because of flooding, which allows sodden soil to move, or rockfalls and slower, continuous movements of land due to gravity…
Rescue workers in Hiroshima search for missing people.
EPA
Landslides don’t attract the same media attention as more familiar geological hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes. And yet they can be just as disastrous and, in fact, 2014 has been a particularly…