Barbados does experience mass wasting, better known as landslides, mostly on the northeast part of the island known as the Scotland district. Landslides in this area make some land unusable for agriculture as well as blocking roads. The Eocene sediments are the greatest contributor to mass wasting as they are prone to soil creep. The Boscobel Landslip of 1901 was the greatest landslide in Barbados' history as there was approximately 10 million cubic meters of displaced sediment. Barbados was also at high risk for landslides and flooding in 2016 because the soil had gotten extremely dry during El Niño and when it's counterpart La Niña was expected to bring heavy rains, the soil wouldn't be able to absorb all of it. Barbados is taking full advantage of the latest technology in order to be able to make decisions up to six months in advance based on seasonal forecasts. They are using this time to prepare and mitigate impacts from mass wasting, and they also make sure to warn citizens to brace for these hazards.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-013-0423-3
https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/77908/caribbean-prepare-landslides-flooding
Hello Paige,
ReplyDeletegreat blog post this week. It is enormously interesting to read that the greatest landslide occurred over a century ago in Barbados. I wonder what long-term consequences this landslide had on Barbados today and if those consequences can still be observed to this date. Haiti did not experience any major landslides, as far as I know, but still prepare for possibly dangerous landslides in the future. The 2010 7.0 earthquake in Haiti woke up the population to not only prepare for earthquakes, but also for tsunamis, floods, as well as mass wasting. Personally, I would love to know, what type of technology Barbados is taking advantage of in order to prepare for landslides. I can imagine, because Haiti is working together with the organization CATHALAC and NASA to predict possible landslides, that Barbados is also prepared by satellite images to foresee possible landslides. I am curious now, how are the people in Barbados warned? Since it is a relatively small country, I can imagine that it would not be a great obstacle to warn its population. In Haiti, I could not specifically find the answer to the "How?", but I was able to find out about the different methods to mitigate the threat.
Keep up the great work! I can't wait to read more about Barbados in the future!