Landslides on Efate from the Port Vila earthquake in Vanuatu

The Landslide blog is written by Dave Beatley, widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.

With regard to “natural” disasters, attention is currently focused on events in Los Angeles, which in time may have significant landslide impacts. A major atmospheric river event during the remainder of this winter will likely place additional pressures on already devastated communities. But we should not overlook other recent events, which include the Port Vila earthquake that struck Vanuatu on December 17, which primarily affected the island of Efate.

The final loss of life appears to have been 14 people, 265 wounded, and an unknown number of missing. Landslides were a major issue (I wrote about this at the time) – Wikipedia says:

Numerous landslides occurred, including some that blocked roads and buried sidewalk in the city. Two bridges also collapsed… A landslide hit the international shipping terminal in Port Vila… Another landslide buried a bus, killing several people… Landslides were also reported in remote villages and islands, while three bridges were damaged to the point of She was on the rise. Risk of collapse in case of heavy rain.

I've been monitoring Planet Labs images over the past few weeks to try to get a sense of the landslide's effects offshore. This is very difficult because the weather is very cloudy in Vanuatu. However, the picture is starting to emerge.

The best image so far was taken on January 2, 2025, but it only captured part of the area. This is the picture:-

Planet Labs image of Efate in Vanuatu. Note that the new image is the brighter area on the left side – and the section on the right is the pre-earthquake image. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Photo dated January 2, 2025.

According to the caption, the new image is the left side brighter than before. The faded section on the right is an older (pre-earthquake) image.

It is worth comparing this image with an image collected shortly before the earthquake, on December 14, 2024: –

In the overlap area between the new part of the two images, multiple shallow landslides are clearly visible. The image below shows this more clearly:-

Planet Labs image of Efate, Vanuatu, showing several shallow landslides. Image copyright Planet Labs, used with permission. Photo dated January 2, 2025.

This shows that there are hundreds of small, shallow landslides across the forested interior of Efate, as well as a number of larger landslide areas (some of the larger landslides are between 600 and 700 meters in length). These landslides appear to have been strongly controlled by topography, occurring primarily at the tops of steeper slopes.

Fortunately, these landslides did not coalesce to form directed debris flows, and connectivity to the drainage system appears to be low at present. But the first months of the year are the wettest in Efate (March seems to be the wettest month).

The typical pattern for post-earthquake landslides is that the first exceptional rainfall event leads to further failures. This will need close attention in the next few years. The population in the interior of Ifati appears to be low, but flowing debris flows can pose a real threat downstream.

Reference and recognition

Team Planet (2025). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, California. https://www.planet.com/

Thanks as always to the Planet Labs team for making the images available to me.

Text © 2023. The Authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unless otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission of the copyright owner is prohibited.

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