Overview:
Seven folks have been killed in a failure that was most likely brought on by undercutting of the slope and triggered by heavy rainfall.
The Landslide Weblog is written by Dave Petley, who’s well known as a world chief within the examine and administration of landslides.
On 18 April 2023, a damaging rockslide hit the border city of Torkham in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in NW Pakistan. I blogged concerning the Torkham Rockslide on the time, speculating that undercutting of the toe of the landslide was more likely to be the elemental reason behind the failure. In a brand new paper simply printed within the journal Landslides, Sana et al. (2023) present an preliminary evaluation of the accident.
The Torkham Rockslide struck an space that was primarily used for parking of vehicles ready to cross the border into Pakistan. The landslide occurred at about 3:40 am native time, burying about 20 vehicles. Sana et al. (2023) report that seven folks have been killed.
The Torkham Rockslide occurred in a steep limestone cliff, as proven within the picture under, from the paper. The landslide fragmented into giant blocks that made the rescue operations very difficult:-
The authors undertook a area go to and have analysed satellite tv for pc imagery and rainfall data. They conclude that the probably underlying reason behind the landslide was street widening that concerned reducing of the toe of the slope. The set off is more likely to have been heavy rainfall – the world had suffered a collection of rainfall occasions by means of April 2023, and Sana et al. (2023) report that native folks described a convective storm occurring on the time of the landslide.
Sana et al. (2023) advocate improved landslide mitigation measures alongside this necessary street, together with higher drainage, retaining partitions, terracing, rockfall obstacles and catch fences. I’d agree, however would additionally counsel that establishing protected parking areas for vehicles may assist.
Reference
Sana, H., Ullah, R., Zinke, R. et al. 2023. Torkham Rockslide of April 18, 2023, in Pakistan: an interaction of geomorphology, geology, slope reducing, and local weather. Landslides (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02164-x