Landslides are triggered in Nepal due to a combination of steep mountains and unstable soils. The risk of the landslide is high in the monsoon season due to the lubrication of soil in the slope by moisture. Another important factor triggering the landslide is earthquakes. When landslide occurs near the river, it can block the river causing a damming effect. Damming could also occur due to rock-slides.
Such dams are unstable and can cause flooding if not breached in controlled manner. Below is a list of dams formed due to landslides and their impacts in Nepal Annually, 593 natural disaster occurs in average and quite a few of them are related to the damming by landslides and about 13% of fatality is directly related to the landslide and
Landslides Dammed Outburst Flood
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
(LDOF).
List of landslide dams
*1988 September,
Myagdi river: The
rockslide in Darbang region of Myagdi river killed 109 people and dammed the river.
*2012 May,
Seti River
The Seti River is an important tributary of the Karnali system that drains western Nepal.
Course
The Seti originates from the snow fields and glaciers around the twin peaks of Api and Nampa in the south facing slopes of the main Himalayas. Th ...
: The location of dam is about 25 km from
Pokhara
Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the List of cities in Nepal, second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living ...
. The flash flood killed 71 people.
*2014,
Sunkoshi River
The Sunkoshi, also spelt Sunkosi, is a river of Nepal that is part of the Koshi or Saptkoshi River system in Nepal. Sunkoshi has two source streams, one that arises within Nepal in Choukati, and the other more significant stream that flows in fr ...
:
2014 Sunkoshi blockage
*2015 : The landslide of April 2015 blocked Tom river in Mansalu region.
*2015,
Kaligandaki river: 27 houses were buried and river was dammed for 16 hours by Baseri landslide. The river opened the channel without major damage.
*2015, Marshyangi river: Gogane landslide blocked the river to accumulate about 150,000 m3 of water. The river opened up naturally.
*2016, July,
Bhotekoshi River
Bhote Koshi in Nepal and Poiqu in Tibet, both names roughly mean "Tibetan river," is the name given to the upper course (main tributary) of the Sun Kosi river. It is part of the Koshi River system in Nepal.Shrestha, A. B., Eriksson, M., Mool, ...
: A GLOF event occurred in Tibet triggering flood in Bhotekoshi
*2016,July,
Tamor River
The Tamor River is a major river in eastern Nepal, which begins around Kanchenjunga. The Tamor and the Arun join the Sun Koshi at Tribenighat to form the giant Saptakoshi which flows through Mahabharat Range on to the Gangetic plain
Koshi river ...
: Rockfall blocked the river in Sawadin VDC near Mitlung Bazzar. The obstruction formed a lake about 500 metres long and 200 metres wide.
*2017, April,
Arun River
The River Arun () is a river in the English county of West Sussex. At long, it is the longest river entirely in Sussex and one of the longest starting in Sussex after the River Medway, River Wey and River Mole. From the series of small stream ...
: Nine houses were inundated near Bhotkhola in
Sankhuwasabha
Sankhuwasabha District ( ne, सङ्खुवासभा जिल्ला ) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. The district's area is 3,480 km2 with a population of 159,203 in 2001 and 158,742 in 2011. ...
.
*2018, September, Badigad river: The river was blocked for 6 hours in Bhimgithe. The dam opened up naturally without threat of flooding.
*2018, August,
Budhi Ganga River
The Budhi Ganga River is a tributary of the Karnali River in Nepal. The source of this river is Jagadullah lake in the Bajura District of Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
...
: The river was partially blocked in the banks near Dwari in Budiganga Municipality. No full blockage occurred.
*2020 June, Arun river: The landslide dammed the river forming a lake that was nearly 40 metres wide and height of 5–10 m. The river started breaking naturally.
See also
Natural disasters in Nepal
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
References
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Natural disasters in Nepal
Landslides in Nepal