Cianjur, 2001
How if you are in landslide
This story was happening for long time ago, it was in 2001, while I was in college as undergraduate student. I was working as part timer in insitu rock testing team, located in Cianjur, West Java. It was jungle and rarely occupied with people. For sure it was rainy season, at one and two day before happening, it was really raining.
Unfortunately, in middle of this fieldwork I still had examination in Prestressed Concrete Class. One day more for examination, I was still being in field, how amazing experience J
At the nutshell, in early morning I ought to wake up and ought to walk to nearest village within 4 hours, alone. Yes alone, no one would accompany me. In the middle of path, there was an existing landslide with approximately 20m wide and fallen from 15 to 20 meter above me. No excuse for me, it has to be crossed straightly. I starred for awhile, looked to very soft muddy soil mixed with various sizes of boulders. Okay, first thing first…just go ahead.
At the nutshell, in early morning I ought to wake up and ought to walk to nearest village within 4 hours, alone. Yes alone, no one would accompany me. In the middle of path, there was an existing landslide with approximately 20m wide and fallen from 15 to 20 meter above me. No excuse for me, it has to be crossed straightly. I starred for awhile, looked to very soft muddy soil mixed with various sizes of boulders. Okay, first thing first…just go ahead.
One my feet was in muddy, it was so soft...excuse me…very soft, even half of my leg embedded into it. I thought it was still okay. Then my other leg stepped into it, and you know what. Even I could lift my other leg, it was practically like muddy soil sucked all my embedded legs into it. I tried to lift my legs very hard, and finally it had been released…but my shoes left inside…oh no…even I could not lift my shoes. Oh well, I thought without wearing shoes would be much easier, only my shocks left.
Another obstacle, there was a big boulder right just in front of me. I thought its size was similar with two people. When I tried to pass by underneath it, the boulder started to roll down. Oh my God, even my single foot steep could make this boulder roll down. Really damn soft soil!! Okay, I ought to pass by over it…and it did it. Fuiiihhh…And another obstacle, but this is really dangerous. There was a snake in front of me, about 3m away. And it showed attack position. Shit!! Bloody shit!! All I needed was to calm down. How I make myself calm down if my heart run so fast. I grabbed small branch, and climbed up with very hard. At finally I hit hard ground to stay, so I could avoid the snake. What an amazing experience!
Eventually, I successfully reached nearest village with very mess dress but I was really exhausted and decided to stay in one of villager home, our camp, until tomorrow. I could not attend my examination, but I got new experience to be in landslide. When I told this story to my lecture, Pak Wisjnu (Ir. Wisjnu Yoga Brotodihardjo,M.Eng – RIP), and he just had a short inquiry, “why didn’t you take the muddy soil. Preferably underneath 1- 2 meter below, so we may know how moist the soil is for being failure.” Oh no..I never thought about that..I was so panic!! Hahaha
Some of learning points that I could take from this experience are :
- Try not to seat on it if it is necessary. Give our opinion how soft it is, by measuring with some tool (such as : branch, pocket torvane, pocket penetro, stick etc).
- Try to get some sample from it, preferably 1- 2 meter below it, so we may have a chance to get moisture as natural before it has been failure.
- Beware to boulder (or snake-if you consider to it), because failure landslide still has movement further. No one can predict it.
- Estimate dimension of failure area, most of important is to locate “crown” and typical of landslide.
- Try not to seat on it if it is necessary. Give our opinion how soft it is, by measuring with some tool (such as : branch, pocket torvane, pocket penetro, stick etc).
- Try to get some sample from it, preferably 1- 2 meter below it, so we may have a chance to get moisture as natural before it has been failure.
- Beware to boulder (or snake-if you consider to it), because failure landslide still has movement further. No one can predict it.
- Estimate dimension of failure area, most of important is to locate “crown” and typical of landslide.
Hope it will happen to you also hahaha amazing story for geotechnical learning pratically..never happen in your reference book.
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