Landslides: Extent and economic significance in Ecuador

Landslides are prevalent on the western slopes of the Andes where most of the 10 million people live. A landslide near Chunchi in 1983 blocked the Pan American Highway, buried vehicles, and killed at least 150 people. An even larger landslide in the same area in 1985 blocked the highway and a railroad and killed four people. In 1987, two large landslides near Cochancay buried 5 buses and killed dozens of people. The same year, landslides at the entrance to the Nambija gold mine killed 80 people. The most disastrous landslides in Ecuador’s history occurred on March 5, 1987, when earthquake-triggered landslides near Reventador killed more than one thousand people and severed 33 km of oil pipelines. The damage to the pipeline delayed oil exports for almost half a year, reducing government income by nearly 35 percent. Landslide fatalities in Ecuador have been increasing from 10 deaths in the 1950’s to 290 deaths in the 1980’s, excluding the earthquake-triggered landslides in the Reventador area. Damage has been mainly to highways, railroads, vehicles, homes, irrigation channels, cattle, and cultivated fields.