Heifangtai, Gansu Province, China: Collapse in Loess Deposits
Ground collapse/subsidence in China, most likely caused by movement of water through the loess deposits from the high relief in the right of this picture, to the low relief in the left of the picture. The scale of the collapse can be seen in relation to the man at the forefront.
(c) Geology for Global Development, 2012
For other images in our ‘Friday Photo’ series – please see the full archive here
Joel is the Founder/Director of
Geology for Global Development (
@Geo_Dev) an organisation working to support geologists to make a sustainable contribution to the fight against global poverty. He is an
interdisciplinary researcher, with a PhD in geography (natural hazards), and research interests in multi-hazard frameworks, disaster risk reduction, rural water projects, and sustainable development. This work has taken him to Chile, China, Guatemala, India, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Joel is currently based at the British Geological Survey, and tweets at
@JoelCGill.