Week 8 (Mass Wasting Hazards)

 Mass Wasting Hazards in The Bahamas

The Bahamas is a country with a very low peak elevation. Mount Alvrenina is the country's highest point with an elevation of only 206 feet. With the country of the Bahamas being relativity flat, Landslides are very rare. The closest natural hazard to landslides that have occurred in the Bahamas is sinkholes. There are deep sinkholes throughout the Bahamas that are filled with water that is called "Blue Holes". According to the Bahamas National Trust, during the Ice Age, the ice caps spread over the world causing the sea water levels to slowly fall. Underground caves formed deep in the ground as a result. At the end of the ice age ice melted and sea level rose, filling the caves with water and forming what we know today as blue holes.

Incredible images of the world's most stunning sinkholes, from Oregon to Croatia via the Bahamas | Daily Mail Online

Some neighboring countries in the Bahamas that experience Landslides are St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Dominica of the Windward Islands. According to a website from the University of The West Indies, the average annual cost for landslide damage to roads ranges from $115,000 to $121,000 in normal years. The average annual cost of landslide investigation, repair, and maintenance in the larger islands of Trinidad and Tobago is $1.26 million and $0.96 million, respectively. On an average year, it is estimated the cost of repairing landslide damage to roads throughout the Caribbean amounts to $15 million. Other structural effects include the loss of homes. Seventeen families in Jamaica lost their homes due to a year of slow deformation by a large earthflow near Preston, St. Mary's Parish.

Dominica: Persons affected by floods and landslides to be relocated | Loop Caribbean News

Sources:

https://bnt.bs/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/blueholes.pdf 

https://www.mona.uwi.edu/uds/Land_Bahamas.html#:~:text=The%20only%20other%20significant%20ground,areal%20extent%2C%20and%20economically%20insignificant. 





Comments

  1. Jasmine LopezMarch 17, 2024 at 2:07 PM

    Hi there, I enjoyed reading your post, It is incredible the amount of money that it takes to repair the damages caused by a landslide. Great job in explaining further into detail about landslides in the bahamas.

    ReplyDelete

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