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Catastrophic landslides had a surprising cause: rice farming

Crop irrigation saturated soil, helping to set off Indonesian slides that killed thousands of people.
Residents walk past destroyed buildings in the Perumnas Balaroa village in Palu.

An earthquake and the landslides it triggered devastated the Indonesian village of Perumnas Balaroa (pictured) in 2018. Credit: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty

Irrigation of rice paddies led to many of the 4,000-plus deaths during the powerful earthquake that struck Palu, Indonesia, in September 2018. The waterlogged ground shook during the magnitude-7.5 quake and slid downhill, according to two teams that studied the aftermath of the disaster.

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Nature 574, 8 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02890-0

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