Citation

Hernández-Madrigal V, Mora-Chaparro J, Garduño-Monroy V. Landslides 2011; 8(1): 109-115.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10346-010-0212-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

On November 4, 2007, a large block slide occurred on the south face of the Cerro La Pera at San Juan Grijalva (SJG), northwest Chiapas, Mexico. The SJG landslide has an area of 1.11 km 2 and a volume of 50 Mm 3 , making it one of the largest landslide of its type in the twentieth century. The landslide created a dam over 80 m high and 1,170 m wide across the Grijalva River, backing up the water and forming a 49 km 2 lake. Landslide-generated tsunamis up to 15 m high destroyed the village of SJG, and the newly formed lake flooded 21 villages located upstream. The landslide killed 16 people and caused around 3,600 to be evacuated with incalculable economic losses. It was perhaps the most catastrophic landslide in the history of Mexico. The probable trigger of the landslide was cumulative precipitation of about 67% of the average annual rainfall over the preceding 30 days. The associated potentially causative factors include a M4.5 earthquake that occurred 5 days before the landslide and a water-level drawdown at the Grijalva River generated by the release of water from the Peñitas dam located 14 km downstream.