Useful Film on Landslides

I just watched on Astro's National Geographic Channel at 10pm a program on Landslides.

You should watch it too if you want to understand a little on how the landslide in Putrajaya occurred, unless you want to be fooled by some of the reports in the newspapers about "a rise in ground water level".

Allow me to share one of the scenarios of how the Putrajaya landslide occurred:

There was heavy rainfall and also the leaking water tank mentioned by the Works Minister but no one wants to acknowledge.

According to the documentary and the geologists, it is possible that there is an impermeable layer below the surface of the hill slope and this causes the water to soak into the soil until it becomes saturated with water above the impermeable layer.

As more water soaks into the slope, the water pressure builds up and the whole slope becomes unstable as the soil particles become separated by the water and will slide.

So it points to that leaking tank that kept the hill slope wet and the final slide occurred when the rains added to the water pressure.

Not forgetting the earth drains that should have taken away some of the excess water if they had been properly maintained.