Viral Video: The science of mudslides

By Rustin Thompson:
This collection of videos from around the world conveys some sense of the power, terror and anatomy of mud on the move.                    The most horrifying aspect of the devastating Oso mudslide is the inexorable upward creep of the death toll. Bodies are being plucked from the becalmed torrent of ooze. Clues found in the muck — a bible, a baby’s blanket — suggest more bodies to come. The raw video and photographs are the afterimages of a catastrophe we can only imagine, since no one was shooting video when the hillside came down. Why should they have been? It was a rainless, peaceful Saturday morning. People were sipping coffee, watching TV, reading the paper, visiting friends, until the thundering sound of that wall of mud shattered their worlds...Continue reading, more videos here...