The threat of flash flooding on the Chilcotin River in British Columbia has subsided following a large landslide on July 30, 2024, that dammed the river.
The threat of flash flooding on the Chilcotin River in British Columbia has subsided following a large landslide on July 30, 2024, that dammed the river. Water pooled and formed a lake behind the landslide deposit for several days until it began to find its way through on August 5, first as a trickle and then as a torrent.
The images above show the river on July 16, before the landslide (top image); on August 1, while water was backing up (middle image); and on August 9, after floodwater breached the landslide dam (bottom image), cutting a channel across the debris. Since the breach, water has scoured the channel and the river edges downstream, rapidly eroding material and discoloring the river with fine-grained sediment. All three images were captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8.
The aerial photograph below, captured by a drone and shared by the Province of British Columbia, shows water on August 7 as it churned through the new channel. The second image below, acquired by Landsat 8 on August 9, shows sediment-laden water from the Chilcotin meeting the clearer waters of the Fraser River downstream of the landslide.
Read More: NASA Earth Observatory
Photo Credit: Wanmei Liang
