A train was derailed by a landslide in Buller Gorge, New Zealand – GWC Mag

The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.

There seems to be little respite to the high incidence of rainfall-induced landslides around the world at the moment. New Zealand is being particularly badly affected as repeated intense precipitation events over the last year have triggered multiple slips.

The latest significant event has occurred in the Buller Gorge in South Island. This deeply incised channel of the Buller River contains both State Highway 6 and the Stillwater – Ngākawau railway line. The latter is important for the transport of coal to the deep water harbour at Lyttleton, primarily from Stockton Mine.

Landslides are so common on the alignment in the Buller Gorge that they feature in the Wikipedia page about the railway line, which details events in 1944, 1945, 1949, 1950, 1960, 1961, 1966, 1979, 2002 and 2010.

The latest event occurred on Monday 16 October 2023 at about 3 am local time. A train entered a short tunnel on a curve, unaware that the exit was blocked by a landslide. The locomotive struck the slip and was partially derailed. Fortunately, the driver was uninjured as the train was moving slowly. RNZ has a brief report about the event.

Geoff Mackley has posted an excellent drone video of the landslide onto Youtube – you should be able to view it below:-

The video includes this image of the landslide itself:-

The drone imagery also includes a view of the landslide from overhead, which provides an appreciation of the scale of the failure. Note the steep rear scarp in intact bedrock that shows signs of weathering – I would suggest that this is a pre-existing discontinuity.

Operations are now underway to remove the train.

Meanwhile, an extremely rare red weather warning has been issued for heavy rainfall in eastern Scotland today and tomorrow, with yellow and amber warnings in place for much of the rest of the country. Parts of the Scotland were hit by heavy rainfall only a few days ago, with multiple landslides. Stuart Dunning (@Rock_Avalanches) has tweeted satellite imagery of a cluster of landslides on the A83 at Glen Kinglass, for example:-

Note that this is not at the infamous Rest and Be Thankful, which is well known for its landslide problems.

Further landslides seem likely over the next two days in Scotland.

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