Publications

Shallow rainfall-induced landslides commonly occur under conditions of transient infiltration into initially unsaturated soils. In an effort to predict the timing and location of such landslides, we developed a model of the infiltration process using a two-layer system that consists of an unsaturated zone above a saturated zone and implemented this model in a geographic information...

The Meadow Creek landslide, part of the Coal Hill landslide complex in western Kane County, Utah, is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) wide and 1.3 miles (2.1 km) long and contains six smaller historical slides. The upper part of the Meadow Creek landslide is gently sloping and consists of displaced and back-rotated blocks of Cretaceous Dakota and Cedar Mountain Formations that form northeast- to...

Rates and styles of landslide motion are sensitive to pore-water pressure changes caused by changes in soil porosity accompanying shear deformation. Soil may either contract or dilate upon shearing, depending upon whether its initial porosity is greater or less, respectively, than a critical-state porosity attained after sufficiently high strain. We observed complications in this...

The empirical probability for the occurrence of submarine landslides at a given location can be estimated from age dates of past landslides. In this study, tools developed to estimate earthquake probability from paleoseismic horizons are adapted to estimate submarine landslide probability. In both types of estimates, one has to account for the uncertainty associated with age-dating...

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is a geologically diverse ocean basin that includes three distinct geologic provinces: a carbonate province, a salt province, and canyon to deep-sea fan province, all of which contain evidence of submarine mass movements. The threat of submarine landslides in the GOM as a generator of near-field damaging tsunamis has not been widely addressed. Submarine...

This layer is an inventory of existing landslides deposits in the Little North Santiam River Basin, Oregon (2009). Each landslide deposit shown on this map has been classified according to a number of specific characteristics identified at the time recorded in the GIS database. The classification scheme was developed by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (Burns and...

Earthquakes on strike-slip faults can produce devastating natural hazards. However, because they consist predominantly of lateral motion, these faults are rarely associated with significant uplift or tsunami generation. And although submarine slides can generate tsunami, only a few per cent of all tsunami are believed to be triggered in this way. The 12 January Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake...

Data points represent locations of photographs taken of landslides in the Little North Santiam River Basin, Oregon. Photos were taken in spring of 2010 during field verification of landslide locations (deposits previously mapped using LiDAR-derived imagery). The photographs depict various landslide features, such as scarps, pistol-butt trees, or colluvium deposits. This work was...

This geodatabase is an inventory of existing landslides in the Little North Santiam River Basin, Oregon (2009). Each landslide feature shown has been classified according to a number of specific characteristics identified at the time recorded in the GIS database. The classification scheme was developed by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (Burns and Madin, 2009)...

A typhoon (Typhoon No. 10) attacked Shikoku Island and the Tyugoku area of Japan in 2004. This typhoon produced a new daily precipitation record of 1317 mm on Shikoku Island and triggered hundreds of landslides in Tokushima Prefecture. One catastrophic landslide was triggered in the Shiraishi area of Kisawa village, and destroyed more than 10 houses while also leaving an unstable block...

Because many tree species can live for several centuries or longer (Brown 1996), tree-ring analysis can be a valuable tool to date geomorphic events such as landslides, earthquakes, and avalanches in regions lacking long historical records. Typically, a catastrophic landslide will destroy all trees on the landslide, but trees on slower moving landslides may survive. For example, the...

Earthquakes on strike-slip faults can produce devastating natural hazards. However, because they consist predominantly of lateral motion, these faults are rarely associated with significant uplift or tsunami generation. And although submarine slides can generate tsunami, only a few per cent of all tsunami are believed to be triggered in this way. The 12 January Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake...