{"id":1979,"date":"2026-07-20T06:17:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/the-17-july-2026-landslide-at-hanjia-in-chongqing-china\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T06:17:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:17:59","slug":"the-17-july-2026-landslide-at-hanjia-in-chongqing-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/the-17-july-2026-landslide-at-hanjia-in-chongqing-china\/","title":{"rendered":"The 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26_07-Hanjia-1.png\" class=\"attachment-rss-image-size size-rss-image-size wp-post-image\" alt=\"The aftermath of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China.\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#dfcdb3\">Reports suggest 42 people were killed in a large rockslope failure. Imagery suggests that suspicion will fall on a cutting at the foot of the slope. <\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/landslide-blog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/landslide-blog.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a landslide partially covered with a transparent sand-colored overlay and the words \u201cThe Landslide Blog,\u201d centered, in white\" class=\"wp-image-212674\" style=\"width:250px;height:188px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>On Friday 17 July 2026, at 9:08 am local time, a large landslide occurred on the banks of the Wujiang River at Hanjia, located within of Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County in Chongqing, China. <a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260717\/66a2911d26a64d5e9ca0e015b8d7993e\/c.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260717\/66a2911d26a64d5e9ca0e015b8d7993e\/c.html\">Media reports indicate that 42 people have been killed<\/a>. Ten people were rescued.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260718\/e244f7d66b3549438e28781541097138\/c.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260718\/e244f7d66b3549438e28781541097138\/c.html\">Xinhua has released this image of the aftermath of the landslide<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26_07-Hanjia-1.png\" alt=\"The aftermath of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. \" class=\"wp-image-249150\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The aftermath of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. <a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260718\/e244f7d66b3549438e28781541097138\/c.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260718\/e244f7d66b3549438e28781541097138\/c.html\">Image from Xinhua<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fq2Rxikrezk\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fq2Rxikrezk\">There is some dramatic footage of the landslide in action and the immediate aftermath<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The location of this landslide appears to be [29.27760, 108.16604]:-<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"721\" src=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26_07-Hanjia-2-1024x721.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth image of  the site of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. \" class=\"wp-image-249151\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Google Earth image of  the site of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The images and video suggest that this was a rockslope failure &#8211; note the size of the blocks &#8211; with a strong element of toppling. The very planar form of the rear scarp suggests to me that release has come from an existing joint or fault.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260717\/89c9e8428a5548beb143e4266bdf4bbb\/c.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260717\/89c9e8428a5548beb143e4266bdf4bbb\/c.html\">The media reports indicate that rainfall was the final trigger<\/a> &#8211; this makes sense from a timing perspective &#8211; but the focus might be on the underlying causes.  My attention is immediately drawn to the building beside the road on the slope side of the site.  It appears that the slope has been cut to create the space for the building.  The building was under construction in 2014, but this image from 2017 shows the cut more clearly. I have annotated the top of the cut slope:-<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26_07-Hanjia-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Annotated Google Earth image from 2018 showing the site of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. \" class=\"wp-image-249152\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Annotated Google Earth image from 2018 showing the site of the 17 July 2026 landslide at Hanjia in Chongqing, China. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This would be my starting point in terms of likely causation of this landslide.  Interestingly, there are other locations along this road with large cut slopes, so an immediate priority will need to be an assessment of the stability of those sites.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:15%\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/landslide-blog\" style=\"border-radius:18px;background-color:#aa9a69;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Return to <em>The Landslide Blog<\/em> homepage<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:15%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Text \u00a9 2026. The authors.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/3.0\/us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a><br \/>Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.<\/h6>\n<p class=\"bkbc-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/eos.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Eos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports suggest 42 people were killed in a large rockslope failure. Imagery suggests that suspicion will fall on a cutting at the foot of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bkbc.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}