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A massive landslide appear to have pummeled a remote region of southeast Alaska on Sunday ( Feb. 16 ) . If confirmed , it may be the largest natural landslide to have fallen anywhere since 2010 , a blogger for the American Geophysical Union reported today ( Feb. 20 ) .
Geologists identify what they trust to be alandslidebased on data from remote seismic instrumental role that observe the unequaled type of reverberations , or seismic undulation , produced when rocks pound on the Earth during landslides . These reverberations are similar to those make by definitive earthquakes but are longer - waved , since landslide occur over a longer period of time than the nearly instant architectonic case that do classic earthquakes .
This landslide occurred in southeast Alaska in July, 2013. The newer landslide is thought to be even larger than this one.
The squad has not yet collected satellite imagery of the area to confirm that the unparalleled seismic readings do , indeed , represent a landslip , but expect to have this confirmation by sometime this weekend . Until then , the Columbia University geologists who detected the event are declining to expose on the nose where it took place , by from saying that it is somewhere in southeast Alaska . [ The 10 large earthquake in chronicle ]
" We can be moderately sure that what we see in the squirm is a real landslide , but we do n’t have a confirmation on the ground so I ca n’t separate you for sure where it strike , " Colin Stark , a geologist at Columbia University ’s Lamont - Doherty Earth Observatory , say Live Science .
Based on the data collected from the event , Stark and fellow Göran Ekström calculate that the landslip contain about 68 million metric tons of solid stone — tantamount in weight unit to about 40 million SUV , Stark said .
If their estimate are correct , this would be the expectant natural landslide since 2010 , a twelvemonth in which a monumental landslide come in Pakistan and three pullulate together through the Himalayas . A sizeable slump also come at theBingham Canyon copper minein Utah last year , but that one was man - made .
Natural landslides of this large a scale by and large consist of solid rock that gets pulverized into smaller stones through the duration of the wild event . The careen start strike when they loosen from heavy pelting , snowmelt or ground - thawing , and the lead river of rock can travel at speed of up to 656 feet ( 200 meters ) per secondly , Stark said .
Stark and Ekström have been tail massive landslides since 2010 , and have happen between three to 10 result around the world each yr . A large fortune of these have occurred in Alaska , Stark said , and several others have also occurred in likewise icy terrain , peculiarly during ardent summer . For this reason , he believes that they tend to be trigger by ground - warming , but has not yet confirmed this .
The researchers hope that by studying these remote massive landslide , they will be better able to understandthe scourge posed by landslidesin more populated region .
The researchers will resume their depth psychology of the presumed landslip once they confirm the event from satellite images , Stark said .
