Monday, August 16, 2010

Where on Google Earth 211 (updated with result)

There is a long running competition in the Geoblogosphere called "Where on Google Earth" (WOGE), which essentially challenges readers to identify locations pictured on Google Earth imagery.   The last was WOGE (number 210), hosted by Meta-Geologist; I was the lucky winner.  The winner gains the right to choose and host the next one, so here it is:


The rules of Where on Google Earth are that to win you must post in a comment the location of the image (lat, long), together with a brief description of the reason for its geological interest. The prize is the right to produce and host the next one.  You will be unsurprised to hear that the site in question contains a landslide - in this case very a large one.

RESULT: Both Christoph and Jorge were correct in the location.  There is indeed an ancient, cubic kilometre scale rock avalancke deposit in the valley, and upstream there are extensive lake deposits.  On the basis of this, I declare Jorge the winner, who now gets the right to set the next one.

Dave
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6 comments:

  1. Dave S.August 16, 2010 at 1:06 PM

    I initially thought this was the Hunza River Valley in Pakistan, but upon closer inspection, it doesn't look like it! Time to dig a little further...

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  2. José DíazAugust 17, 2010 at 9:38 AM

    I was going the same way as Dave S...

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  3. JorgeAugust 17, 2010 at 9:53 AM

    Indeed it's in Nepal and shows the deepest valley on earth (around 2500 m between two peaks of more that 8000 m. In pre-historic times there was a giant rockslide near the bent of the Kali Gandaki valley which blocked the valley by a 600 m high dam. The lake silted up totally; remnants of the dam of the lacustrine sediments are still there. See Hanisch 1996 and Fort 2003.

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  4. Ripendra AwalAugust 17, 2010 at 7:52 PM

    The approximate location of landslide dam in the image is located at 28o38’44.81” latitude and 83o35’44.51” longitude. The geographic Position of this area is Kali Gandhaki Valley, Mustang, Nepal. The main geological interest in this image is a giant rockslide that covers an area of about 10km2. The rockslide formed a barrier that dammed the Kali Gandhaki River near Kalopani village. From Kalopani towards the north the Kali Gandhaki valley widens as far as the village of Kagbeni to a more than 30 km long former dammed reservoir of the river. The reservoir was filled with alluvions, mass wasting and lake sediments.

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  5. AnonymousSeptember 1, 2010 at 1:25 AM

    There is no location of the image (lat, long) in Mr. Jorge's comment.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 1, 2010 at 1:25 AM

    There is no location of the image (lat, long) in Mr. Jorge's comment.

    ReplyDelete

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