The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
On 13 February 2024, the enormous Çöpler Gold Mine Landslide occurred in Erzincan, Türkiye (Turkey), killing nine miners. This was the first of two massive and immensely damaging heap leach mine failures last year (the other occurred in Canada). That such an event could occur has come as something of surprise to many people, so there is intense interest in understanding the circumstances of the failure.
I posted about the landslide at the time, and subsequently:
At the time, Capella Space captured this amazing radar image of the aftermath of the landslide (which is highlighted):
Analysis of this landslide is ongoing, and information is emerging on a regular basis. The latest is an open access paper (Büyükakpınar et al. 2025 – the PDF is here) in The Seismic Record that combines analysis of the seismic data from the landslide with remote sensing data to try to understand the failure.
The use of seismic data for landslide analysis often causes confusion, with people interpreting it to mean that the landslide was triggered by an earthquake. This is not the case – the scale of this landslide meant that it generated a seismic signal that was detected up to 400 km from the source. This data can be analysed to provide information about the landslide itself.
Büyükakpınar et al. (2025) provides three really interesting insights into the Çöpler Gold Mine Landslide, confirming initial observations. The first is that there are two distinct seismic signals, 48 seconds apart. Thus, there were two landslide events. The first detached to the west, representing a collapse of a steep slope into the deep excavation. The second moved to the north‐northeast, on a more gentle slope. It is the second that was caught on video, and that is highlighted in the Capella Space image. In fact the first landslide can also be seen in the image – in particular the landslide deposit at the bottom of the deep excavation. The analysis also suggests that the combined landslide volume was about 1.2 millon m3, of which the second landslide was about 1 millon m3.
I would note that soon after the landslide, Tolga Gorum correctly identified that the image shows that the landslide moved in two directions.
Second, Büyükakpınar et al. (2025) have used an InSAR analysis to examine precursory deformation of the heap leach pad before the failure. This suggests that the mass was moving at up to 60 mm per year over the four years prior to the failure. The trend is quite linear, so it is not obvious that it would have provided an indication that failure was imminent, but this level of movement would be quite surprising in a well managed site.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Büyükakpınar et al. (2025) also show that the embankment below the cyanide leach pond (labelled in the pre-failure Google Earth imagery below) is now moving at up to 85 mm/year. As the authors put it this “raises significant concerns about the potential for further instability in the area”.
One can only hope that this hazard, in a seismically active area, is being addressed and that lessons have been learnt.
Reference
Büyükakpınar, P. et al. 2025. Seismic, Field, and Remote Sensing Analysis of the 13 February 2024 Çöpler Gold Mine Landslide, Erzincan, Türkiye. The Seismic Record 5 (2): 165–174. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0320250007
