EOSC 114 Chapter 4: Landslides
23 Nov 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Effects of landslides are long-lasting & costly: death, triggers secondary disasters, damaged property & infrastructure, contamination of water supplies, siltation of rivers & fisheries. Economic consequences can be felt years later: medical cost, repairing damaged structures, replacing damaged infrastructure, mitigating effects of future landslides. Indirect losses have greater economic consequences than landslide itself: loss in property value, decline in tourism. Increasing population density: use of marginal land, rapid land-use change, global warming. Deaths are typically underestimated bc they"re often associated with landslide trigger. Devastating landslides usually involve deaths due to direct & indirect consequences. European alps represent a long history of populated mountain valleys: due to high population density (esp compared to north america) Elm event, switzerland (1881): events that led up to & accompanied failure were well documented, failure involved sudden release of 10 million m3 of rock, 115 people died, velocities exceeded 80 m/s (288 kmh)
