The Vajont disaster: The “tsunami” from a hill that left more than 2,000 dead in Italy

The 25 October 1954 landslide disaster on the Amalfi Coast of Italy

The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. I have frequently highlighted the growing impact of multiple landslide events triggered by extreme rainfall around the world. Whilst there is little doubt that such events are becoming more common, they have occurred through history too. I recently came across a paper (Fiorillo et al. 2019) that documented such an …

Some describe it as a “fact of biblical proportions”, others as one of the greatest environmental tragedies of humanity. It is the disaster of the dam of Vajont, in Italy. It was in the 60’s that post-war Italy sought ways to generate hydroelectric energy and thus resurrect the country. It was thus that the local authorities decided to build a dam near the town of Longarone and on the slopes of Mount Toc. At its minute, the dam of Vajont was the…