Allegations: Oregon Not Forthcoming With Landslide Hazard Information
Geologic Hazards
Oregon Landslide News and Map
This is definitely the season for landslides, mudslides, debris flows and other mayhem in Oregon and elsewhere in the pacific northwest. It seems like every time I turn around there is another Google Alert in my inbox about a landslide related issue in that area. Having a hard time keeping up with it all, I decided to try something new. Click through to see a map of automatically updated landslide news in Oregon. Lets call it a Beta…so we’ll see if it works out. If it does, maybe I’ll try something similar for other areas or other items that tend to make it into the news. (Photo by Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian)
Geologic Hazards
Recent Rockfall Stories in New Zealand, Colorado and Portugal
There were three fairly recent rockfall events with fatalities that made the news and caught my eye. State Highway 36 in New Zealand is still closed after a major rockfall occurred in Rotura. The photo […]
Geologic Hazards
Rockfall in Yosemite causes hotel evacuation of all 300 guests
A landslide in Yosemite National Park on Wednesday damaged three cars in the parking lot of the Ahwahnee Hotel and left rocks, one the size of two SUV’s in the parking lot. Park officials evacuated […]
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Clatskanie Landslide
Dear geo blogger,
My take on this slide is that the old railroad crossing or road crossing that held up the water for the Clatskanie Event on or about Jan 11, was not “put to bed”. The crossing should have been destroyed and the abutments pulled out of the channel. The slide volume and extent of travel of the subsequent debris flows would have been much smaller and shorter.
I served for a year as an ERFO Hydrologist at the Detroit Ranger Station, up the Santiam Canyon from Salem in 1997 and 1998. An about-to-retire civil engineer, Bill Day, used the “put to bed” term and practice. He also said something else that was useful, “it takes trees to be twenty years old or more before their root systems hold back natural landslides. The trees on the reforested property above the Clatskanie debris flow section were not that old.
I agree with Bill Burns and, to reinforce his statements, I like what he said about the recent spate of landslides.
John Rehm
Registered Geologist G1137
Salem, Oregon
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Note: This is a Opinion based on literature (Dryness, c. 1964), my MS Thesis published on the Rutgers University Geosciences website, and professional experience under registered engineer supervision by Bill Day (1997-1998 (just in case OSBGE is reading this)
Put to bed
Thanks for your insights John. I’ve never heard the term “put to bed” before, but I couldn’t agree with you more. And the factoid about tree root systems seems like a very useful rule of thumb. — Randy Post (aka Rockman)