DEATH IN COLOMBIA LANDSLIDE: IT'S NOT THE FIRST AND REGRETTABLY IT WILL NOT BE THE LAST ONE!

Colombia landslide kills dozens

Reproduced from BBC News

At least 48 people have been killed in a landslide in Antioquia province in north-west Colombia, officials say. Bodies are still being recovered and the authorities expect the number of fatalities to rise. Heavy rains caused the river Liboriana, in the town of Salgar, to burst its banks, triggering the landslide. Much of the village of Santa Margarita, south-west of the provincial capital, Medellin, was swept away when the landslide hit early on Monday.

Other tragedies (see below):

Below, reproduced from AGU- Americam Geophysics Union:

Colombia is a country with a serious landslide problem.  The combination of mountainous terrain,  active tectonics, occasional earthquakes, deep weathering and intense rainfall means that the level of hazard is high.  Add to this a vulnerable population and rapid expansion of the infrastructure, and the results are inevitably that losses from landslides are high.  In recent years I seem to have blogged about landslide events in Colombia on numerous occasions (for example here, here and here), and there have been some spectacular events caught on video. (Colombia is situated northwest, on the map)