USGS is collecting and analyzing air photos to help monitor a huge landslide that occurred May 20 on California’s Big Sur coast. A quarter-mile-wide lobe of rock and soil has buried State Highway 1 and extends into the Pacific Oceanat Mud Creek, about 140 miles south of San Francisco. The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Remote Sensing Coastal Change project captured several photo sets during the recent slide activity and plans to shoot additional photos from airplane and drones during the coming weeks and months. Project scientists photograph the California coastline regularly and use “structure-from-motion” software to transform photos into 3D maps from which they can measure ground movement. They have flown and photographed the Big Sur coast several times this spring to track landslide activity in collaboration with geologists from the USGS Landslide Hazards Program. For additional information and images, please visit the Remote Sensing Coastal Change website.

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