The 6 August 2025 fatal Dayuan landslide in Guangzhou, China

On 6 August 2025, the Dayuan landslide in Guangzhou, China killed 7 people. It was triggered by rainfall onto an area affected by a wildfire.

In recent decades, China has built substantial capacity for investigating landslides. One result of this is that most significant landslides there are now analysed with the results published. This is a welcome development.

One example is the 6 August 2025 Dayuan landslide in Guangzhou, China, which killed seven people. An analysis of this event (Che et al. 2026) has been published in the journal Landslides – it is a very interesting story.

The location of this landslide is [23.24560, 113.33723] (Che et al. (2026) provide a location that appears slightly incorrect, but mapping in China is an issue in its own right). This is a Google Earth image of the site:-

The Dayuan landslide had a volume of about 15,000 m³, travelling about 80 metres to impact eleven houses at the toe of the slope. The event, which was triggered by an intense burst of rainfall (peak intensity = 32.8 mm/h) that followed a prolonged period of rainfall. The landslide had unusually high mobility, which was a major factor in its lethality.

The really interesting aspect of this event is that the slope had suffered a substantial wildfire in January 2025, a few months before the landslide. Che et al. (2026) conclude that this wildfire created an ash layer that initially impeded infiltration until it was eroded away, which then exposed a layer of highly permeable soil. When the rains arrived, the topography channelled water into this part of the slope, generating high pore water pressures that triggered the failure.

It is not clear as to why the landslide had unusually high mobility – perhaps static liquefaction was a factor?

Wildfire occurrence is rising, and the link to landslides in places such as California is well established. That even small wildfires are promoting fatal landslides in Asia is very interesting, especially ahead of the unpredictable global weather that will accompany the peak of the 2026-27 El Nino event.

Reference

Che, F., Zou, J., Qiu, Y. et al. 2026. Coupled effects of wildfire, rainfall, terrain, and lithology on the failure of the Dayuan landslide. Landslides. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-026-02854-2

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

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