Verdalsraset

May 19, 1893 - It was 30 minutes past midnight on this day that the ground in Verdal, Norway started moving. The massive landslide involved 60 million cubic meters of earth. 116 people and over 500 farm animals were killed.

The slide was caused by heavy rains and lingering floods that had turned the soil into a deadly fluid known as quick-clay.

Witnesses reported seeing large sections of land gliding along undisturbed like islands in the sea of churning mud.

The disaster is known in Norway as Verdalsraset.