Heavy Rain Triggers Landslides in Thailand

thailand-landslides-110405-02 — (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon)

Intense rain triggered widespread landslides in southern Thailand during the last week of March 2011, according to a NASA statement. This photo-like image shows some of the slides in the forested hills of the Krabi province on the western side of the Malay Peninsula. The freshly exposed brown

Multiple landslides in Thailand. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon.)

The large image, which cover a much wider area, shows many more landslides, though clouds hide much of the region from view. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired the image on April 4, 2011.

The slides occurred during more than a week of unseasonal heavy rain, during which more than 1,200 millimeters (47 inches) fell. The ensuing floods and landslides affected more than two million people and killed 53 in 11 Thai provinces, said news reports on April 5. One large slide (mostly under clouds immediately southeast of the area shown in the web image) buried a village of about 100 households.

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