Allegations: Oregon Not Forthcoming With Landslide Hazard Information
Geologic Hazards
GeoGirl – Fighting Geohazards Since 2016!
The comic book superhero GeoGirl fights to protect the public from geohazard villains such as Dick Clay and Lance Lied! These entertaining geotechnical comic books are developed by San Francisco Bay Area geotechnical engineering firm […]
Geologic Hazards
Taiwan Mudslides – Death Toll As Many as 600
According to JapanToday, the death toll from the Typhoon Morakot caused mudslides and related damage could be as high as 600 after the typhoon dumped over 2-meters of rain (79-inches!) on the island nation. The […]
Project Related
Oregon settles with contractor on landslide plagued Highway 20 project
The Oregon DOT stopped work on a 10-mile stretch of Highway 20 back in 2010 after several landslides were discovered during construction. Four bridges that were constructed by Yaquina River Constructors, a subsidiary of Granite […]
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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)