Discover real natural events happening around our amazing planet right now!
Real-time landslide and debris flow data from NASA EONET and the Global Landslide Catalog
View on Globe →A landslide is when a large mass of rock, soil, or mud suddenly slides down a hillside or mountain. They often happen after heavy rain soaks into the ground, or after an earthquake shakes a slope loose. A big landslide can move faster than a car and bury everything in its path.
NASA satellites monitor the rainfall events and slope conditions that make landslides likely. By combining precipitation data from space with terrain maps and historical landslide records, scientists can issue hazard warnings before communities are buried beneath collapsing hillsides.
NASA's Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness (LHASA) system combines real-time rainfall measurements from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite with global terrain and soil maps to generate daily landslide hazard maps. When heavy rain falls on steep, landslide-prone terrain, the system alerts scientists and emergency managers.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites such as ESA's Sentinel-1 — which NASA collaborates with — use radar to measure ground surface movements of just centimetres. This allows scientists to detect the slow creep of unstable slopes weeks before they fail catastrophically, providing critical early warning in monitored areas.
After a major landslide, high-resolution optical satellites like Landsat can map the full extent of damage within days, supporting disaster response efforts in areas too dangerous or remote to access on the ground.
Earth Explorer displays landslide events tracked by NASA's EONET monitoring network. Major landslides and debris flows worldwide appear as glowing dots on the interactive globe, updated as events are reported.
View Live Landslide Events →Landslides happen when the forces pulling slope material downhill — mainly gravity — overcome the forces holding it in place. The most common trigger is prolonged or intense rainfall that saturates soil and reduces its strength. Other triggers include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and human activities like deforestation and road cutting that remove the support from a slope's base.
Mountainous regions with heavy seasonal rainfall carry the highest risk: the Himalayan foothills, the Andes, Central America, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and parts of the American Pacific Northwest. Deforested slopes are at much higher risk because tree roots that hold soil together are gone. Volcanic flanks and earthquake fault zones are also highly susceptible.
A debris flow is a fast-moving mixture of water, soil, rocks, and vegetation that behaves like thick liquid as it surges down a valley. Debris flows can reach 50 km/h and carry boulders the size of houses. They are especially dangerous because they travel far beyond the original slope failure, burying communities in valleys that may seem safe from the hillside above.
Scientists can map high-risk areas and issue warnings when dangerous rainfall thresholds are reached. NASA's LHASA system generates daily landslide hazard maps using GPM satellite rainfall data. While exact prediction is not possible, these tools can provide hours to days of advance warning, giving communities time to evacuate to safety.
Evacuate immediately to higher ground away from slopes, gullies, and drainage channels. Listen for unusual sounds — cracking, rumbling, or snapping trees. If you cannot escape, move to upper floors of a sturdy building. Never try to outrun a landslide. After the event, stay out of the area as secondary slides frequently follow within hours or days.
NASA maintains the Global Landslide Catalog (over 11,000 events since 2007) and operates the LHASA hazard assessment system, which uses GPM rainfall data to generate daily global landslide hazard maps. SAR satellites detect slow slope creep before failure. After events, optical satellites like Landsat map the full extent of damage to guide disaster response.