Landslides

Annually, landslides affect large numbers of people around the world due to both catastrophic and smaller, chronic events. According to a 2006 United Nations University report, annual losses due to landslides in Japan amount to $4 to 6 billion; for the United States, annual losses are estimated at $1 to 2 billion. Annually, 940 persons were killed in the decade from 1993 to 2002 due to catastrophic landslides, compared to 25,000 annual deaths due to flooding. Yet, landslide statistics are frequently underestimated, as many landslides worldwide are often triggered by another natural hazard, such as earthquakes or flooding; they also occur at many different scales, often not captured by official statistics. As an example, the 2001 El Salvador earthquake (magnitude 7.7) killed 844 persons, 585 ...