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Landslide on Cherry Hills Subdivision (August 02, 1999)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On or about 8:00 pm. on August 02, 1999, a landslide occurred on a slope where Cherry Hills Subdivision is located, in barangay San Luis, Antipolo City. Fifty nine (59) persons were killed, thirty two (32) were injured and one (1) was still missing. Damage to properties runs to millions of pesos, three hundred seventy nine (379) houses were destroyed and one hundred twenty five families were affected. A team of PAGASA technical personnel was tasked to do an actual field investigation on the area to determine the cause of the landslide and to verify if the meteorological situations prevailing at the time had a direct effect on the incident (an extremely large amount of rain fell over the entire metropolis for two consecutive days prior to the disaster). Investigations showed that the area has an average slope of about twenty per cent (20%) enough to trigger downslope movements of any unstable materials, conditions permitting. The nature and character of the materials were also contributing factors in this incident as well as human intervention in the form of developments directly on the slopes. Results also showed that the introduction of water (large amount of rains fell over the area) contributed partly in triggering the movement of the materials. It was also found out that as early as four to five months from the time of the disaster, the area has manifested repeated signs indicative of ground movements. It is in this context that the team was inclined to believe that early warnings should have been made that could have saved lives and injuries. In much the same way, granting that all the necessary steps have been taken prior to the selection of site for construction and development, the team was also inclined to believe that an error in judgement was made by those who approved of such construction and development to take place in an area such as Cherry Hills.

Why Does the Leaning Tower of Pisa Lean?

In 1172, Donna Berta di Bernardo donated sixty silver coins to the local cathedral for the purchase of stones to be used in the base of a new bell tower. The next year, construction on the tower began and almost immediately there were problems. The tower site sat on soft ground composed mostly of clay, fine sand, and shells (the city sits between the Arno and the Serchio rivers). By the time the builders finished the second floor in 1178, the tower was beginning to lean. Soon, construction was halted for almost 100 years, as Pisa fought wars against Genoa, Lucca and Florence. This may have been a lucky break, as modern analysis says that the tower definitely would have toppled had construction continued without time for the soil to settle. When work on the tower started again, it was leaning 0.2 degrees north of vertical, but by the time the workers started on the seventh floor, the tower was tilting one degree south. Around this time, construction stopped again for unknown reasons. DON'T LEAN ON ME Over the next century, construction continued intermittently. The towers lean gained another 1.6 degrees. To counteract the lean, the builders made the remaining floors taller on the south side of the tower. But the weight of the additional
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floors only made the foundation sink further, making the lean worse. Having done what they could, the builders finished up and officially completed the tower around 1370. Since the towers completion, engineers and architects from all over the world have monitored the lean and tried to correct it. These attempts have involved adding grout to the foundation masonry, wrapping plastic-coated steel pieces around the tower up to the second floor, pouring a concrete ring around the base of the tower, laying lead counterweights to the north side, installing anchored cable counterweights, and extracting soil from underneath the north side. After the removal of more than 70 metric tons of soil in 2008, engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilized enough that it had stopped moving for the first time since construction began. Its lean is now only about 4 degrees (prior to the all the restoration attempts, the lean was 5.5 degrees), or about 13 feet past perfectly vertical. The Leaning Tower of Pisa should be stable for at least the next 200 years.

Places in the Philippines that Exhibits Karst Topography


Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite.[1] Due to subterranean drainage, there may be very limited surface water, even to the absence of all rivers and lakes. Many karst regions display distinctive surface features, with sinkholes or dolines being the most common. However, distinctive karst surface features may be completely absent where the soluble rock is mantled, such as by glacial debris, or confined by a superimposed non-soluble rock strata. Some karst regions include thousands of caves, even though evidence of caves that are big enough for human exploration is not a required characteristic of karst.

El Nido, Palawan, The Philippines Sagada, Mountain Province, The Philippines Bohol, The Philippines Negros and Gigante Islands, Negros Oriental, The Philippines

Provident village/ SM City Marikina Map view

Sinkholes: The Philippine experience By Caroline J. Howard, ANC Posted at 06/08/2010 12:28 AM | Updated as of 06/10/2010 4:26 PM Expert downplays fears of sinkholes ever happening in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Geologists are still dumb-founded as to how a gigantic sinkhole appeared in an intersection in Guatemala more than a week ago. Some geologists say human activity, not nature, was to blame for the Guatemala sinkhole. A scientific investigation into the formation of the 70 X 102 foot crater launched on Thursday revealed it may have been the result of excessive ground water, coming on the heels of Tropical Storm Agatha. Sinkholes are known to form when the ground collapses into a void beneath the surface, usually in places where water dissolves away rocks like limestone and gypsum. As such, geologists say, sinkholes are not exclusive to Guatemala. In fact, they are found in many countries, including the everglades in the U.S. state of Florida where limestones are extensive, such that the state requires sinkhole insurance for homes. However, Sam Bonis of the Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, points out there is no limestone beneath the section of Guatemala City where the new sinkhole appeared. He believes a burst sewer pipe, or storm drain, may have hollowed out the underground cavity, mostly made up of pumice fill from past volcanic eruptions, resulting in the chasm. But when it comes to sinkholes, even the Philippines is no exception. Limestone and sinkholes Speaking on Dateline Philippines on Sunday, Dr. Carlo Arcilla of the National Institute of Geological Sciences in U.P. Diliman says, limestone is a natural setting for this phenomenon owing to the rock's porous composition. "Limestone can be dissolved by acid rain over time," Arcilla says. "But it's strong so you can actually build a house even with a one- to two-meter deep foundation. But when the cracks develop and you put a load, it could suddenly collapse." Arcilla explains the nature of limestone: "It is a rock formed mostly under the ocean. It precipitates in the ocean, or sometimes, the shells of sea animals collect at the bottom of the ocean and it formes a big pile over millions of years. In geologic time, all of that limestone is brought up to the surface by tectonic forces. This material, called calcium carbonic acid, is soluble. So after millions of years of dropping, there are cracks, and yet it still holds. Sometimes, it can even engulf rivers."

Such cracks forming, or bodies of water suddenly disappearing, are among the warning signs of sinkholes. Arcilla says this is the case of the Palawan underground river, when the river suddenly disappears after encountering hollow areas in the ground and goes underneath. Sinkhole-prone areas in RP "It's basically how caves form, but a sinkhole is basically a cave that bursts to the surface. So the caves and holes were there in Guatemala before it collapsed," Arcilla says. He notes the phenomenon has happened in small scale in areas with limestone including Bohol, Cebu--60% of which is made up of limestone--and parts of Baguio. Bohol's Chocolate Hills were also formed the same way, as the mounds surrounding those that made up the Chocolate Hills collapsed. Arcilla notes the case of Pangasinan's Hundred Islands is even more spectacular. "Between them are limestone that all collapsed over eons. And in an island beside it, the Anda Island in Pangasinan, there are sinkholes developing," he says, adding he had deemed it useless to build roads on top if it after the provincial governor asked him to investigate the area. Probing sinkholes Geologists like Arcilla have ways of probing potential sinkholes. He cites ground-penetrating radars, and the gravity method, which he likens to doing an x-ray on the ground. However, Arcilla laments, despite environmental policies that require an engineering, geological and geohazard assessment, some people are loathe to hire geologists and would rather hire feng shui experts when building. As for repairing a sinkhole, some geologists (including Dan Doctor of the US Geological Survey) say, it requires an engineering solution: filling it with rock, sediment, or some type of cement of grout. Manila on solid ground While there are some limestones in Rizal and Tanay, Arcilla says, most of them don't have buildings. He, however, downplays fears of sinkholes ever happening in Metro Manila, which sits on solid adobe rock. "Most of Metro Manila is volcanic in origin, the result from a violent eruption of the Laguna de Bay volcano," Arcilla says, adding it happened some 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Sinkholes are the least to worry about in Metro Manila. Arcilla says more worrisome are active earthquake faults, including the Marikina Valley Fault, which extends from Montalban to Tagaytay.

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