Saint-Jean-Vianney was a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, which was abandoned after it was partially destroyed in a

landslide 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 ...

on May 4, 1971.

History

Saint-Jean-Vianney was originally created as a

parish municipality A parish is an administrative division used by several countries. To distinguish it from an ''ecclesiastical parish'', the term ''civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is ...

in 1935, and became a village on December 29, 1951. By 1971, the village had a population of 1,266.

Landslide

Located near the shore of the

Saguenay River __NOTOC__ The Saguenay River () is a major river of Quebec, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. T ...

, Saint-Jean-Vianney was — unbeknownst to residents at the time — built atop a bed of unstable

Leda clay Quick clay, also known as Leda clay and Champlain Sea clay in Canada, is any of several distinctively sensitive glaciomarine clays found in Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States and other locations around the world. The cla ...

, a type of

subsoil Subsoil is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. Like topsoil, it is composed of a variable mixture of small particles such as sand, silt and clay, but with a much lower percentage of organic matter and humus, and it ...

which can

liquefy In materials science, liquefaction is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas or that generates a non-liquid Phase (matter), phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. It occurs both nature, naturally and artificially. ...

under stress. Following unusually heavy rains in April 1971, the clay soil bed at Saint-Jean-Vianney became saturated with water that had failed to run off, causing pockets of clay to gradually dissolve. Over the few weeks leading up to the landslide, cracks were reported in some of the town's streets and driveways, some house foundations dropped roughly six to eight inches into the soil, and some unusual noises — including underground thumps and an untraceable sound of running water — were reported. At 10:45 p.m. on May 4, the earth at Saint-Jean-Vianney suddenly dropped approximately , forming a canyon through which a river of liquefied clay flowed toward the Shipshaw River below, swallowing houses in its path. Just before midnight, the clay finally stopped flowing and began to resolidify. By the time the landslide had ended, 41 homes had been destroyed and 31 people had been killed. The landslide created a crater of approximately in area, varying from to in depth.

Aftermath

The Saint-Jean-Vianney site was subsequently declared unsafe for habitation, and over the next six months the survivors were resettled at

Arvida Arvida ( ) is a settlement of 12,000 people (2010)Peritz, Ingrid, "Saguenay 'utopia' dreaming big again", ''The Globe and Mail'', 13 November 2010, p. A31 in Quebec, Canada, that is part of the City of Saguenay. Its name is derived from the name o ...

. Through various municipal amalgamations, both the landslide site and Arvida are now within the municipal boundaries of Saguenay. Subsequent research into the slide revealed that Saint-Jean-Vianney was in fact built directly atop the site of another landslide approximately 500 years earlier, long before any settlement had ever taken place in the area. The site of Saint-Jean-Vianney remains uninhabited today, although a small park near Shipshaw and a museum exhibit at Saguenay's Place du Presbytère commemorate the event. Place du Presbytère also includes an exhibit dedicated to the Saguenay Flood of 1996.

External links

Satellite image of Saint-Jean-Vianney townsite
on

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

Saint-Jean-Vianney
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History of Saint-Jean-Vianney landslide

Saint-Jean-Vianney Landslide , CBC archives
{{coord, 48.472794, N, 71.21975, W, source:frwiki_region:CA_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title 1935 establishments in Quebec 1971 disestablishments in Quebec Ghost towns in Quebec Natural disaster ghost towns 1971 in Canada Natural disasters in Quebec Landslides in Canada History of Saguenay, Quebec Neighbourhoods in Saguenay, Quebec Former municipalities in Quebec Former villages in Canada Landslides in 1971 Populated places disestablished in 1971 Forcibly depopulated communities in Canada Destroyed towns

History

Landslide

Aftermath

See also

External links