Landslide and Debris-Flow Event Summaries

Flooding and debris flows occurred on the south side of Hawai‘i Island during Hurricane Lala, which passed near the island on 15 –17 August 2026. The hurricane produced high rainfall rates, (e.g., 32.1 inches of daily rainfall recorded at the Laupāhoehoe station) (University of Hawai’i News, 2026). Catastrophic flash flooding, debris flows following the storm, specifically near Na‘ālehu, and...

On Wednesday morning (local time), 26 August 2026, a catastrophic debris flow and flood was likely triggered by rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Lāṅṭāṇ National Park, Nepal, near the border with China. This debris flow and flooding travelled nearly 100 km and impacted populated areas downstream along the Lende Kholā and Trishuli̇̄ Kholā rivers, including the Rasuwāgaḍhi̇̄ border post...

On Wednesday, June 24th, 2026, a pair of earthquakes of Magnitude 7.2 and Magnitude 7.5 occurred in northern Venezuela, west of Caracas. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Ground Failure product estimated that landslides triggered by this earthquake would likely be significant in number and/or spatial extent. This landslide event page serves to communicate timely science information to our partners...

In the early fall 2024, the Elk Fire burned nearly 100,000 acres along the eastern edge of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming’s Bighorn National Forest. Less than one year later, on the evening of July 15, 2025, thunderstorms swept across the burned area, triggering floods and debris flows in several steep watersheds. This geonarrative explores why the Elk Fire left the landscape vulnerable to...

A M7.0 oblique-slip earthquake initiated about 10 km below the Hubbard Glacier in the St. Elias Mountains about 88 km north of Yakutat, Alaska, at approximately 11:40am AKST (1:40pm YST) on December 6, 2025. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Ground Failure product estimated that landslides triggered by this earthquake would likely be significant in number and/or spatial extent. This was confirmed...

Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 storm, made landfall on October 28, 2025, near the border of Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth Parishes, southwestern Jamaica. The storm brought heavy rainfall, strong winds, and flooding to much of the Caribbean. In Jamaica, intense rainfall on steep mountainous terrain raised concern about potential landslides. This landslide event page serves as an event summary to...

A landslide above the toe of the South Sawyer Glacier failed into the waters of Tracy Arm, south of Juneau, Alaska, producing a tsunami on Sunday, August 10th, 2025, at 05:26 AKDT / 13:26 UTC. No injuries or fatalities have been reported. This page may be updated as more information about the event is obtained. Steep, mountainous landslide areas are inherently unstable and will continue to change...

Hurricane Helene produced widespread damaging, and in some cases, deadly landslides. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm on Thursday, September 26th, 2024. The hurricane continued across the southern Appalachian Mountains producing record rainfall and wind gusts, damaging flooding, and triggering over 2000 landslides. This page provides information about the extent and...

A 4.6-million-cubic-meter (equivalent to over 184 Olympic-sized swimming pools) landslide produced a tsunami in Pedersen Glacier lagoon, southwest of Seward, Alaska on Wednesday, August 7th, 2024, at approximately 04:55 AKDT / 12:55 UTC. Surveying indicated that the landslide generated tsunami runup of at least 17 meters (approx. 56 ft) in the upper Pedersen Glacier lagoon*, reducing to about one...

This new geonarrative (Esri story map) highlights two storm events and their postfire impacts in the Dixie burn area.

Extreme rainfall during two atmospheric river events in January 2021 and January 2022 triggered a series of debris flows in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. The flows had significant impacts, including multiple highway closures and one fatality. This story map highlights rainfall data and observations of debris flow deposits by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)...

On Thursday, August 13, 2020, at approximately 1:45 PM MDT, the Cameron Peak fire was reported in steep, rugged terrain 15 miles southwest of Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, near Cameron Pass. The fire spread rapidly due to extreme temperatures, strong winds, and high fuel loads. The largest wildfire in Colorado history, the Cameron Peak fire burned 845 square kilometers (sq km) on the Arapaho and...