Mass Wasting China-Case Study: HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN

HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN



Breaking News, Honolulu! - A massive landslide strikes Zhouqu County, China



The devasting landslide in Zhouqu, China happend on August 8th. More than 1700  people had been declared dead and 490 people were missing. Villages,buildings, and homes were destroyed. This was recorded as the worst landslide in Zhouqu and possibly the worst in China.

The landslide occurred because of a variety of reasons for instance China`s topography is extremely mountainous. Forests have been logged for trees as an industry, stripping the mountainsides and exposing underlying soils and sediments. The weather has been experiencing torrential rains from the monsoon season. The region also experiences large and devasting earthquakes from time to time.  Landslides occur because of the heavy rainfall and from the earthquakes occurring on steep slopes where the slipping soil causes landslides. The anthropogenic causes of landslides are dams, clear cutting, undercutting, etc.

This landslide was very devastating because it was quite large and it killed or injured many people and animals. It destroyed homes, villages and buildings.

This landslide could've been prevented from stabilizing the ground and by building retaining walls that won't compromise the shear plane of the land.

Communities could've prevented some of the landslide damage by avoiding to build houses on a slope or living close to them. A few tips which would allow people to be prepared for this is by listening to the radio or news, being alert for rocky slopes, being ready to relocate to safer locations, being alert on heavy and continuous rainy days.

Immediately after the landslide,  families should not return to homes because there could be a lot of destruction. After everything has fully recovered and is repaired, then they are allowed to go. Many prevention programs are created to prevent a future disaster. Also, many recovery efforts  and assistance is available from other cities and service workers, for the recovery of a massive landslide such as this one in Zhouqu, China.