They then analyzed a subset of 38 that differed in how much rainfall they received, the rock types they were made of, the environments in which they occurred (coastal versus inland), and whether they were in developed or undeveloped areas. And in some instances, they can suddenly collapse, which is what occurred with the Mud Creek landslide near Big Sur in 2017.Ĭalifornia hosts more than 650 slow-moving landslides, and Handwerger and his colleagues focused on 247 slow-moving landslides with an average area of 0.2 square miles (0.5 square kilometers). While slow-moving landslides don’t necessarily pose an immediate danger to people or infrastructure, over time they can damage things like roads and buildings. The big-picture goal is to develop a statewide inventory of landslide behavior that would inform a monitoring network. Water triggers landslides, and knowing how landslides react to record drought or extreme rainfall can help researchers better predict their future behavior, including whether any could collapse, or fail catastrophically. The study authors found that landslides in wetter and drier regions of California showed similar sensitivity to precipitation extremes, moving on average faster and farther downhill during rainy periods compared to drought years. The researchers expected slow-moving landslides-where land creeps downhill just inches to feet in a year-in bone-dry Southern California to behave differently from those in rainy Northern California when exposed to heavy precipitation and drought conditions.
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