Over at the History of Geology blog, David Bressan is commemorating the Goldau Landslide in Switzerland that occurred on September 2, 1806. A landslide from the Rossberg mountain killed nearly 500 people. It was the first time that a natural, as opposed to supernatural, cause was assigned to a geological disaster. Please visit David's blog for the full story.

What is fascinating I think, is that the views of the two contemporary paintings of the landslide that David uses to illustrate his post, one by Xaver Triner, the other by David Alois can be recreated in Google Earth and show the remains of the landslide today.

Further references in David Bressan's post.

Flashearth view and the Google version.