REPORT:
Documented Historical Landslide Dams from Around the World

Data Organization

• Country

  Name of the country in which the landslide dam formed, as listed by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names or included in the Times Atlas of the World, 7th edition, 1988.

• Subdivision

  Name of the local political unit in which the landslide dam formed, as listed in The Times Atlas of the World, 7th edition, 1988.

• Date of dam

  Year, month, and day on which the landslide dam was formed. Dates Before Christ (B.C.) are listed with a minus (-) sign in front of the year. Unknown year, month, or day are represented by (?).

• River or Lake

  Geographic name of the river that was dammed by the landslide, and the name of the resulting lake, if available, as listed by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names or included in The Times Atlas of the World, 7th edition, 1988. Many of the lakes have been given informal names because they were new or temporary features not listed in these references and not noted on available maps.

• Type of landslide

  Type of landslide according to the classification of Varnes (1978). The basic movement process is listed first, followed by a descriptor that usually indicates some material property, for example, "slump, earth". Many landslides transform after they detach. If the type of landslide that originally formed is know, and the type of landslide that ultimatedly formed the dam is known, they are given in this order and separated by a forward-slash (/), for example, "avalanche, rock/slide, debris". If only one kind of landslide is listed, it is the mass movement that actually formed the dam.

• Trigger

  Mechanism that caused initial landslide.

• Landslide volume

  Total volume of the initial landslide, in cubic meters.

• Dam type

  Type of landslide dam, based on morphological relationship with the valley floor, using the classification of Costa and Schuster (1988).

• Dam height

  Vertical altitude difference from the valley floor to the lowest point on the landslide dam (point of overflow in event of overtopping), in meters.

• Dam length

  Crest length of the landslide dam measured perpendicular to the major valley axis, in meters.

• Dam width

  Base width of the landslide dam measured parallel to the main valley axis, in meters.

• Lake length

  Length of backwater ponded behind landslide dam, measured upstream from dam, in meters.

• Lake volume

  Volume of water ponded behind landslide dam (usually maximum volume), in cubic meters.

• Time to failure

  Elapsed time from initial formation of landslide dam until failure of the dam, in days. In some cases time to failure is a qualitative statement, for example, "In a short time."

• Failure mechanism

  Physical process that led to complete or partial breaching of the landslide dam and draining of the lake.

• Breach dimensions

  Geometry of the breach eroded into the landslide dam. This is an important component for dam-break modeling. These data are scarce for landslide dam failures.

• Controls

  Any physical modifications made to the landslide dam to help minimize volume of impounded water, artificially lower height, change the geometry of dam, or prevent erosion upon overtopping.

• Dam materials

  General type of material that constitutes the landslide dam.

• References

  Sources of information about individual landslide dams.

• Comments

  General information about effects of the landslide or dam failure.

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