Extreme events like heavy rainfall, storms or hurricane activate landslides. Unstable soil surface conditions can make heavy rains act as the triggering point for mud, rocks and/or debris to move down from mountains and hillsides. These mass movements cause unexpected human and economical losses. Heavy rainfall is the most common cause for landslides although earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, erosion, collapse of groundwater reservoirs, ice melt can also cause them.
NASA developed the Global Landslide Catalog (GLC) to indentify rainfall-triggered landslides incidents in the planet, no matter the size, impact or location. The GLC collects information from media, disaster databases, scientific reports and other sources. The Catalog has been gathered since 2007 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. For more information on the GLC please click here.
