Nature
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A 610-meter-wide (2,000-foot-wide) mudslide swept eight houses into the ocean in northern Norway on Wednesday. Thankfully, nobody was harmed in the incident, which was caught on camera. The footage shows the moment a huge segment of land appears to slough off into the sea. The incident continued for several hours as even after the initial wave dislodged the homes there continued to be instability in the area.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The surge of mud and rock was 150 meters high (500 feet) and swept through the western side of Kråkneset in the Alta municipality. It took eight houses as it stormed towards the sea, which in the video appears to drift into the water on a raft-like mass of unbroken surface earth. A local became aware of what was happening after hearing a loud bang that he first believed to be an intruder in his home, according to a report from Forbes. Once he became aware of what was happening, he ran out and caught the incredible events that followed on camera.
The police were notified of the mudslide at around 3.45pm, launching a rescue mission. Though nobody was hurt, one person had to be evacuated from a nearby property and a dog was also swept away into the water. Fortunately, the dog was able to swim back to the land where helicopter rescuers were met by a seemingly grateful pupper. You can see the heartwarming rescue in the video below.
Mudslides are the result of a large volume of water that causes soil to erode rapidly on a steep slope, such as the mountains in Alta that slope down to the sea. This water commonly comes from rapid snowmelt on the frost caps of mountains but can also be from heavy rainfall. As the sudden influx of water mixes with the soil, it becomes loose and begins to slide down the slope, gathering momentum as it travels.
[H/T: Forbes]
