Khait landslide

View of the Khait landslide showing the scar on Chokrak mountain and the landslide that overwhelmed the village of Khait
Landsat image of the landslide

The Khait or Hoit landslide occurred on July 10, 1949 in the Hoit district in the Gharm Oblast in the Tajikistan, then part of the Soviet Union. 'Khait' is a transliteration from Russian: Хаит; local modern spelling: Hoit (Tajik: Ҳоит).

The landslide was triggered by the 1949 Khait earthquake and buried 33 villages and has by some estimates killed 28,000 people. News of the landslide was not publicly revealed by the government and details of the disaster were not revealed until after the fall of the Soviet Union. A marble statue of a woman with her head and hands lowered and an expression of grief was later erected at the site.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Yablokov, Alexander (February 2001). "The Tragedy of Khait: A Natural Disaster in Tajikistan". Mountain Research and Development (Berne, Switzerland: International Mountain Society) 21 (1): 91–93. doi:10.1659/0276-4741(2000)021[0091:TTOKAN]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3674137.

Coordinates: 39°10′44″N 70°52′08″E / 39.17889°N 70.86889°E / 39.17889; 70.86889

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