A Large Increase in Landslides in the UK

    2012 was one of the wettest years on record, as we all know, but a result of this has been a four to five fold increase in landslides and slope failures (man-made slopes.) Over the last few days there has been an ongoing slow moving landslide which could possibly be one of the largest and most significant landslides in the UK possibly for a decade!

    The pictures below show the unfolding destructive force of a landslip which is tearing up and deforming railway lines near Doncaster. The reason for this is because of a large spoil heap at the Hatfield Stainforth Coilery which has been deforming over the last few days due to extremely wet material within the structure of the hillside.

 
    The spoil slope sits on Alluvium which is likely to be full of water from a high water table and cannot support the weight of the wet spoil and has formed what seems to be a rotationary landslide in which the land is pushed up at the front as the back of the slope slumps down. This is a very slow moving landslip and has been moving for the last few days and is currently still moving. This picture shows the landslip from the air and you can see the slump and the fractures at the top of the slope where the land has slid from.

   There has been many landslides over the last year because of the wet weather. A woman was killed on a beach in Southern England from a rockfall and two people were killed when a landslide crushed their car as they were leaving a tunnel (picture below.) In North East of England numerous landslides saw houses demolished and bones falling down from a church graveyard onto properties below.

There is a significant relationship with wet weather and landslides and there are likely to be many more landslides over the next few months while land is saturated and the water tables are high.