Contact: Ellen Gray
Ellen.t.gray@nasa.gov
301-286-1950
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Mudslide in Zhouqu County in Gansu, China

Caption: Around midnight on Aug. 8, 2010, a violent surge of loosened earth roared down mountain slopes and slammed into quietly sleeping neighborhoods in Zhouqu County in Gansu, China. The catastrophic mudslides -- the deadliest in decades according to state media -- buried some areas under as much as 23 feet (7 meters) of suffocating sludge. 1,765 people died. Property damages totaled an estimated $759 million. Cutting from right to left, this detailed image, from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite, shows the largest slide in the lower part of the city on Aug. 10, 2010.

Credit: Image from WorldView-2 © 2010 by DigitalGlobe

Usage Restrictions: None

Related news release: NASA's TRMM satellite confirms 2010 landslides