This week we are discussing 'mass wasting' events...aka, landslides, mudslides, rockslides, etc.
... very timing because of the recent news of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hitting NE Japan and provoking several landslides and rockslides (image below).
and kill between 25-50 people annually. The largest landslide in modern U.S. history (in terms of volume) was most likely one that occurred in 2013 in Bingham Canyon outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. It had a slide mass of 55 million cubic meters (compared to an estimated 10 million cubic meters during the Oso event in 2014).
Landslides impact California’s terrain often. These are generally related to precipitation patterns, in particular if there has been previous months of drought conditions. In January 2019, Pacific storms brought a lot of rainfall to the state. The heavy rain forced residents to evacuate from wildfire-ravaged areas. The “high risk” areas for mudslides are so because they are adjacent to steep slopes or are located at the base of drainage areas. Recent examples are the ‘Woolsey’ and the ‘Hill’ fire burn areas, which will be subject to high volume of mud and debris flow moving forward.
Ana
ReplyDeleteThank you for all this great information on landslides and especially the ones that affect us here in California. I know some people who were worried about dealing with landslides in their homes after the devastating wild fires this past summer and fall. Luckily their homes were not compromised with the mud came down a few weeks ago but still many others were. Hopefully we can find ways to prevent the damage caused by landslides in the future.