The 28 July 2024 landslide at Yuelin, in Hunan Province, China

The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.

On 28 July 2024, a landslide struck Yuelin village, located in the Hengyang administrative area of Hunan Province. The landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall induced by the remnants of Typhoon Gaemi, which has slowly been dissipating over mainland China. Tragically, Xinhua reports that 15 people were killed in this landslide, with a further six left injured.

Xinhua has released a series of images of the aftermath of the landslide, including this one:-

There is also an interesting vertical image of the site:-

According to Google Maps, Yuelin is located at [27.2616, 112.6805], although I am not sure that this is the precise location of the landslide.

The failure appears to have originated as a shallow, translational slide on the hillside, with the failure then entraining soil and regolith before striking the building on the lower slope. Note that in the area of the crown of the landslide there is a derelict building. I might speculate that there was a small fill slope in front of this building that failed to generate the landslide. An alternative, or parallel, cause may have been significant drainage issues in land that might have fallen into disrepair.

The rainfall is causing problems elsewhere in Hunan. Two major dike breaches have been reported, both on the Juanshui River. The first, at Yisuhe in Xiangtan County, has led to the evacuation of almost 4,000 people. The second is at Huashi Town, also in Xiangtan County.

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