Week 8 Mass Wasting Events
Week 8: Mass Wasting Events This week we will discuss a mass wasting event in Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the countries prone to landslides due to a combination of rapid rainfall events, typhoons, and periodic earthquakes. According to my research, the landslide probability in Taiwan was 0.5% to 2% until 2009. https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2017/05/17_05-Taiwan-1.jpg However, after 2009, a drastic change occurred in southern Taiwan and the landslide rate increased dramatically. Northern Taiwan was unaffected, but southern Taiwan was hit by typhoons that brought massive amounts of rainfall, resulting in horrific landslides. Taiwan is prone to typhoons due to the winds, with many typhoons occurring offshore in areas east of Taiwan or south of Japan. 2009 saw Typhoon Morakot, in which more than 700 lives were lost due to the typhoon. 2010 also saw a landslide that partially buried a highway, killing several people. There have been other disasters as well. https://blogs.agu.org/l