Off-road vehicular destabilization of hill slopes: the major contributing factor to destructive debris flows in Ogden, Utah, 1979

The Wasatch Mountains in northern Utah are a north-south trending range with steep slopes caused by faulting less than 10,000 years ago. Through the natural processes of rain, frost-wedging, gravity, and earthquakes these slopes are slowly being eroded. A geologic history of instability is recorded at the base of the range in the form of landslide deposits, debris flows, and rock-fall deposits.