The parts of Nepal most vulnerable to landslides run along the Nepal–Tibet border and above the fault rupture, west of Mount Everest, and 17,550 square miles of places that are above 8,200 feet.
Also at risk are areas close to rivers. Landslides can build up and form artificial dams and thereby flood villages nearby.
“With the satellite images, we’ll be looking first at the highest-risk landslide areas that are close to big rivers,” Marin Clark, leader of the team at Michigan, said in a statement. “Those locations are high priorities.”
If a landslide dams up a river, solving the problem can be a lengthy and complicated process. In July 2014, a landslide killed 156 people and clogged the path of the Sunkoshi River, forming a giant pool of water threatening to flood the villages downstream.
The Nepalese army dynamited the landslide and then set to work digging a canal. It took the army a full 45 days to carve a new path for the river, finally completing the canal on Sept. 4, 2014. The landslides weren’t caused by an earthquake, but by the rain.