Abstract
Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, the landslide dam forming a lake on the Matthieu River, Dominica, West Indies rapidly breached. The complete draining of the lake caused major flooding along the lower Layou River Valley. No fatalities or injuries resulted despite significant property and infrastructure damage. Government estimates place the cost for immediate cleanup and long-term repairs between ECD$9 million and ECD$18 million. The lake created by the landslide dam was unusual for having persisted nearly 14 years. Formation of the Matthieu landslide dam was associated with formation and breaching of two smaller landslide dams on the Layou River in 1997. Available evidence is consistent with breaching due to landsliding on the face of the landslide dam. Landslides removed sufficient material to permit the lake to flow over the dam and erode the dam to about the level of the pre-existing channel of the Matthieu River.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ACOE (2004) Water resources assessment of Dominica, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis. Mobile District and Topographic engineering Center report, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, Alabama, 94 p. Electronic format, available at http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/en/wra/N_Caribbean/N%20CARIBBEAN%20WRA%201%20DEC%202004.pdf
Benson C, Clay E, Michael FV, Robertson AW (2001) Dominica: natural disasters and economic development in a small island state. Disaster Risk Management Working Paper Series No. 5, Disaster Management Facility, World Bank, Washington, DC
Clague JJ, Evans SG (1994) Formation and failure of natural dams in the Canadian Cordillera. Geol Surv Can Bull 462:35
Commonwealth Secretariat (2011) Dominica—Geography. Electronic format, available at http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/138449/geography/
Commonwealth of Dominica (2001) Initial national communication of the Commonwealth of Dominica under the United Nations framework convention on climate change. Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, Roseau, Dominica, West Indies
Costa JE, Schuster RL (1988) The formation and failure of natural dams. Geol Soc Am Bull 100:1054–1068
De Graff JV, Rogers CT (2003) An unusual landslide-dam event in Dominica, West Indies. Landslide News 14(15):8–11
De Graff JV, Bryce R, Jibson R, Mora S, Rogers CT (1989) Landslides: their extent and economic significance in the Caribbean. In: Brabb EE, Harrod BL (eds) Landslides: extent and economic significance. A A Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 51–80
De Graff JV, James A, Breheny P (2010) The formation and persistence of the Matthieu landslide-dam lake, Dominica, W.I. Environ Eng Geosci 16(2):73–89
Delaney KB, Evans SG (2011) Rockslide dams in the northwest Himalayas (Pakistan, India) and the adjacent Pamir Mountains (Afghanistan, Tajikistan), central Asia. In: Evans GS, Hermanns RL, Strom A, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (eds) Natural and artificial rockslide dams. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 205–242
Dunning SA, Rosser NJ, Petley DN, Massey CR (2005) Formation and failure of the Tsatichhu landslide dam, Bhutan. Landslides 3:107–113
Evans SG, Hermanns RL, Strom A, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (eds) (2011) Natural and artificial rockslide dams. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
FAO (2008) Dominica—country report on the state of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome
Govi M, Gullà G, Nicoletti PG (2002) Val Pola rock avalanche of July 28, 1987, in Valtellina (central Italian Alps). In Evans SG, De Graff, JV (eds) Catastrophic landslides: effects, occurrence, and mechanisms, Reviews in Engineering Geology 15, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp 71–90
Hermanns RL, Folguera A, Penna I, Fauqué L, Niedermann S (2011) Landslide dams in the central Andes of Argentina (northern Patagonia and the Argentine northwest). In: Evans GS, Hermanns RL, Strom A, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (eds) Natural and artificial rockslide dams. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 147–176
Hewitt K (1998) Catastrophic landslides and their effects on the Upper Indus streams, Karakoram Himalaya, northern Pakistan. Geomorphology 26:47–80
Kojan E, Hutchinson JN (1978) Mayunmarca rockslide and debris flow, Peru. In: Voight B (ed) Mayunmarca rockslide and debris flow, Peru. In: Voight B (ed) Rockslides and Avalanches, 1, Natural Phenomena. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 315–361
Matthew M, Joseph EH (2011) Matthieu dam collapses causing flooding in Layou River Valley. Government Information Service, Commonwealth of Dominica, Electronic format, available at: http://www.gis.dominica.gov.dm/news/july2011/mdccfilrv.php
Roobol MJ, Smith AL (2004) Geologic map of Dominica, West Indies. Geology Department, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. Electronic format, available at http://www.caribbeanvolcanoes.com/dominica/content/dominicamap.pdf
Schuster RL, Costa JA (1986) A perspective on landslides dams. In: Schuster RL (ed) (1986) Landslide Dams: Processes, Risk, and Mitigation. Geotechnical Special Publication 3, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, pp 1–20
Snow DT (1964) Landslide of Cerro Condor-Sencca, Department of Ayacucho, Peru. In: Kiersch GA (ed) Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology 5. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp 1–6
von Poschinger A (2011) The Flims rockslide dam. In: Evans GS, Hermanns RL, Strom A, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (eds) Natural and artificial rockslide dams. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 407–422
Weidinger JT (2011) Stability and life span of landslide dams in the Himalayas (India, Nepal) and the Qin Ling Mountains (China). In: Evans GS, Hermanns RL, Strom A, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (eds) Natural and artificial rockslide dams. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 243–278
Acknowledgements
The authors would like express their appreciation to Inspector Christopher Laville of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Service, for sharing some of his aerial and ground images taken of the Matthieu/Gould/Layou area days after the 2011 disaster.
We also wish to acknowledge Jude Charles and Kelvin Felix of St. Joseph of Layou Village and St. Joseph in Dominica, respectively, for alerting the senior author about the disaster.
Thanks too to Dominica's Forestry, Wildlife & Parks Division, the Office of Disaster Management, The Ministry of Public Works, Energy and Ports, and the Special Services Unit of the Police Service, for facilitating some of the field visits made by the senior author to the Layou-Matthieu-Carholm-Gould area following the 2011 disaster.
The authors appreciate the constructive comments provided in the review by Dan Shugar.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
James, A., De Graff, J.V. The draining of Matthieu landslide-dam lake, Dominica, West Indies. Landslides 9, 529–537 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-012-0333-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-012-0333-9