catastrophic earthflow, deep-seated slope deformation, rapid snow melt, Outer Western Carpathians

Rapid snow melting and intense precipitation triggered and reactivated tens of mostly shallow landslides in the eastern part of the Czech Republic at the turn of March and April 2006. This area is build up by highly fractured flysch rock units with variable content of sandstones and claystones. The landslide complex at Hluboˇce (Brumov-Bylnice town) is composed of shallow translational (up to 10m thick) as well as deep-seated (up to 20m thick) rotational landslides, which generated a catastrophic earthflow at their toe. This earthflow destroyed three buildings, the access road and caused total loss of about 350 000 EUR. Detailed field investigation, review of the archive sources and interviewing of local inhabitants allowed brief description of slope movement history prior the catastrophic event as well as detailed reconstruction of slope failure mechanisms during the mainmovement activity (3-4 April 2006).