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A catastrophic landslide near Rampac Grande in the Cordillera Negra, northern Peru

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Abstract

This paper provides a detailed account of the landslide that took place between 09:00 and 10:00 am on April 25, 2009, near the village of Rampac Grande in northern Peru (department of Ancash). Lives were lost and property destroyed during the event. Archive information, remotely sensed data, and detailed field investigations including sampling were applied to describe the events. Historically, landslides have been a common problem in this region with recorded events dating as far back as the 1800s. The landslide is considered as a deep-seated composite rotational–translational earth slide–earth flow. The local community suspected that a mining company had triggered the landslide as it prospected for precious metals. No evidence was found to suggest that anthropogenic activity caused the landslide. Instead, it was likely caused by the considerable amount of cumulative precipitation during the annual rainy season. Several possible sources of future landslide reactivation have been identified. Finally, a poster has been produced for the local community providing basic information about the event and how to manage the potential future landslide hazard. It is hoped that this simple method of knowledge dissemination will provide a fundamental bridge between the efforts of research scientists and the needs of the local community.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic (Project MSM 0021620831) and the Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Project AV0Z30460519) for their financial support. Special thanks are extended to the office of ANA (Autoridad Nacional del Agua) in Huaráz for their personal and scientific support as well as to Matthew Rowberry for editing the English of the article.f

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics, Academy of Sciences, V Holešovičkách 41, Prague 8, 182 09, Czech Republic

    Jan Klimeš

  2. Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov St. 6, Prague 2, 128 43, Czech Republic

    Vít Vilímek

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  1. Jan Klimeš
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  2. Vít Vilímek
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Correspondence to Vít Vilímek.

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Klimeš, J., Vilímek, V. A catastrophic landslide near Rampac Grande in the Cordillera Negra, northern Peru. Landslides 8, 309–320 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-010-0249-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-010-0249-1

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