Week 8: Mass Wasting
Mass Wasting
What is it?
Mass wasting is basically any type of downslope movement of earth materials. Other names you might call it are landslides, mudslides, rockslides, etc. They can be caused by many things, such as earthquakes and floods.
Japan's Mass Wasting
* From Statista.com
According to Statista, the number of landslides Japan had was around 1.3 thousand. Notably, in 2018, Japan had about 3.5 thousand landslides. The landslides are more frequent during Japan's rainy season from June to mid-July, and during Japan's typhoon season between July and October.
The most recent landslide in japan was in Atami, Shizuoka prefecture, on July 3, 2021. The landslide resulted in a total of 27 deaths and 3 non-fatal injuries. Of those 27 deaths, 19 occurred during the landslide (Wikipedia). Nine people also went missing. The cause of the landslide was 12.4 inches of rainfall (Wikipedia).
What does Japan do to prevent/warn people?
To prepare the people of Japan for a landslide, in 2006, Japan began to hold drills. The MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism) had "been asking local authorities since 2006 to hold landslide prevention drills that involve local residents" (nippon.com). Because of the drills, there has been a reduction in the damage caused by a landslide. In Tōhō, Fukuoka prefecture, on June 2017, there was a drill with 1050 local residents, which was about half of the village population; the next month, during heavy rains in "northern Kyūshū, the local residents evacuated before a landslide occurred and avoided injury" (nippon.com)
Very intriguing post, Julian! I wonder why Japan's number of landslides increased so significantly?? The same is actually true for Vietnam (my country), everything gets stronger when it's the rainy/typhoon season! I'm surprised that Japan waited until 2006 to start drills, but better late then never, right? Nice post; have a good day!
ReplyDeleteExcellent job on the Mass wasting in Japan. So sad to hear that the most recent landslide from last year had caused 27 deaths and 9 disappearances. I really hope your country's safety plans would help prepare for the next landslides.
ReplyDeleteIn my country, Canada, some of the landslides are caused by heavy rainfalls, but have an ingenious idea to place hazard markers around the area to warn people to stay away from the slope if it starts to collapse.
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