A massive landslide sent millions of cubic yards of rock and gravel into the Taku River Valley on the British Columbia side of the border on Christmas Eve. The slide was so large that it would have registered as a 2.9 magnitude earthquake in Juneau, 46 miles to the west.
(Photo by Darryl Keith Tait photo via Facebook – more photos at link)
The slide will likely change the course of the river in places, Must Read Alaska sources said, but since it’s frozen now, that’s a concern for Spring thaw. Cabins in that area are few and far between and are on the Canadian side of the massive river valley. Cabin owners are not especially concerned that their places will be inundated because there’s plenty of room for more water channels to establish.
The Taku River is a major salmon river in Southeast Alaska. Its headwaters are in British Columbia, where the Tulsequah Chief Mine, a historic copper and lead producer that operated from 1951 to 1957, sits idle.
“It’s an ‘oh my god’ situation,” Jamie Tait from Tundra Helicopters in Atlin, B.C. told Global News after he flew the river to survey the landslide.
“I’ve flown up and down that river for the better part of 40 years and you never see that stuff.”
More story and video footage at:
See what happens when you don’t wear your mask?
LOL!
What a dramatic photo!
More proof of climate change. In 40 years we have never see anything like this there. We need to make everything carbon neutral so this never happens again.
You forgot the /S
Wow. A scientist, and a student of logic, you clearly are not.
Apparently, you aren’t a geologist.
I wouldn’t object to a giant sinkhole at City Hall.
AKWHITTY: How does this relate to climate change? Please explain. Supersaturated ground gave away. Period. May not have happened in 40 years… So what? I don’t see how “carbon neutral” could have affected a landslide.
Most stony mountainous areas are highly fractured, some with the fracture plane having a vertical orientation, giving to vertical shear movement , with lateral displacement in the direction of least resistance.
The recent slide at Haines however, was just as you described.
So when are you giving up fossil fuels? I didn’t think so. Hint the climate has been changing for over 4 billion years. We have only been here for about 2000 years.
AkWhitty, are you really that silly? The planet has for eons convulsed between mega events. Look up lake Ahtna, how about Lituya Bay? 1700 ‘ Tusnama waves, ( landslide caused) happened many times. Took out a Tlinget village there once, way before ” climate change” was a political movement. Happened again as recently as ’58. How about the Volcano in 1912 on the Alaska Penninsula. Dumped 4’ of ash. My Great Grandmother in Valdez told me how the ash burned my Grandfathers diapers hanging on the line. My point is stuff happens. Well, except when it comes to critical thinking for many .
How do you make everything “carbon neutral” when everything on earth is carbon based? Are you God? Oh, and climate is always changing. Most of Canada and much of northern America was covered by the Laurenton Ice Sheet during the Pleistocene Epoch as recently as 11,700 years ago. Somehow this ice sheet melted away without the aid of “evil” SUVs, factories, hordes of people, etc.. The earth is constantly changing and there’s nothing you can do about it, AKWHITTY. I know that leftists like to steal our money under the guise of curing “global warming”, while actually enriching their own coffers. Remember Al Gore? Have you heard from him lately? He must be quite comfortable in his mansion that burns as much energy as five normal households.
I think AKWhitty was being facetious. Just FYI. – sd
I think he was just being humorous also.
It’s supposed to be the Left that tends toward humorlessness. There are a lot of people on the Right who need to pause, turn off their triggered feelings, and think carefully if, in context, is it more likely than not a given comment is intended as satire (however successful) and respond with a spirit of generosity that it probably is if that’s a possibility.
The sincere lefty will take that grace as insulting and let you know regardless, so, win-win.
Don’t be humorless reactive scolds like the Left. We are, in fact, better than them.
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