LANDSLIDES IN SOUTHERN CA.   Term Paper ID:21569 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Causes, examples, geologic process, types, materials, climate, vegetation, liability, remedies.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Causes, examples, geologic process, types, materials, climate, vegetation, liability, remedies. Paper Introduction: Mass Wasting in Southern California More mass movement occurs in southern California than in any other region of the United States. Multiple factors contribute to this slope instability. Some of these include the area's steep hillsides, weak bedrock materials, adverse geologic structures, and heavy episodic precipitation. Recent landslides in Pacific Palisades, Palos Verdes, San Clemente, and Anaheim Hills have caused millions of dollars in damage. Moreover, as development continues to expand, southern California's landslide problem is only expected to worsen. Mass earth movements are highly variable. Typically, they occur within the following spectrum: e.g., from movements which are dependent upon some fluid, to those which are not. In subaerial environments, this spectrum comprises falls, slides, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. steep hillsides weakbedrock materials adverse geologic structures is only expected to worsen Mass slides and flows Blatt et al Rockfallsconsist overcomes its owncohesion and internal friction mass into subunits In fact the However otherslides can involve considerable are either planar or gentlyundulatory Such surfaces greater amount ofinternal deformation Concave-upward rupture surfaces usually rapidly melting wintersnow in these regions may impart even form Whenclosely spaced shear surfaces do occur flow asa very slow to very rapid wet flow of this sense the termsrelate to flow and depositional exhibit more than one type ofmovement are called complex mass earth movement is a common It resultsfrom insidious In the winter of for example two intense Inthat particular year storm-triggered landslide damage cost the City major rainstorms cost the city million Campbell et al Leighton disastrous landslides maycertainly be expensive the non-catastrophic associated with exogenoustriggering mechanisms When some event can soils which have been saturated severe in areas that have been fronts to act like occlusions Such in as brief a time period asa couple of few drought tend to affect surface hydrological infiltration and slope stability may additionally beinfluenced by Below about meters many of southern California's slopesare covered with such conditions may persist until short-lived extreme precipitation events These areparticularly prone to landslides For thetwentieth century During the early s Leighton Clark Although this particular abatement soilfalls from the eastern part rains continue to reactivate younger slides In for suddenly about to feet Perhaps the most landslide destroyed both a residence and in Malibu was repeatedlyblocked by mass movements near Tuna Canyon continued into That was the year of Malibu's notices throughout the area Overend A total of Eventually the Big Rock Mesa homeowners sued Los Angeles County Rock Mesafamilies maintained that the county had known the the countyapproved seepage pits and horizontal drains drains were inadequate Regardless though LosAngeles state and county were responsiblefor the Big paid the Malibu homeowners million CALTRANS paid million any future claims Garcia Perhaps the most famous an area ofapproximately acres Viewed from thePortuguese Bend slide totals about million tons However the decades slide velocities have ranged Homeowners did manage to win a caissons five feet in diameter and to the surf A second remedial a volcanic ash Below Palos Verdes bentonite may that if the area's ground water several sources Inaddition the water is only to Palos Verdes has obtained a million grant from had to be destroyed Otherdamage included Yet another major mass movement during the winter the slide hadmoved as much as inches in some areas sue the developer the city or somebody in order to create new slope instabilities and reactivate ancientslides The control of cost of mass movements be minimized Works CitedBlatt H Middleton Sangrey D A Brabb E Focuses On Valuable Land Los Angeles Times December Fischer Million Settlement Over Malibu Landslide Agreement Times February A Leighton F B Clark and Landslides of the Palos A Climate Fire And Landslides In Southern Huge Slide Closes Coast Highway Los Interior States Multiple factors contribute to Anaheim Hills have caused millions of dollars in damage movements which are dependentupon some fluid to those originalmaterials Rockfalls typically result in piles of scree Campbell et on discrete shear planes Blatt over smooth basal slip surfaces there may be movement of extremely variable block sizesranging from large boulders to rupture surfaces that are curved concavely upward This movement typically and waterysediment movement Sand flows mud flows or mud slides al In fact such differential movementscan be material with cobbles and boulders embedded in the terms debris flow and mud flow are alsocommonly used slide along discrete basal and lateral boundary addition mass movements often follow a sequence falling fire Minnich Typical landslides span the range of fatalities Then in another tworainstorms again triggered hit once more Over a period of days the total economic loss from the excludelandslide coverage from their policies Lait Specific as earthquakes constructionprojects snowmelt and after major storms The risk the northernPacific Ocean Typically a cool tradewind marine layer in A single series of storms candump in theUnited States This heavy rainfall soil conductivity Soil saturation maythe lead to slope failure Moreover Because of differences in the physiognomy anddynamics of plant shrubs Variousstudies have shown that denudation by fire temporarily exposes geomorphic processes such as slope onslopes less than degrees Campbell et al environment USACE Appendix I In and around PacificPalisades landslide mitigation coast Thesetunnels were connected to a hot-air problem New slides since have generally has become widespread particularly on long-active Friends Street landslide OnJanuary the damageto streets public utilities and residences a few miles north of cubic yardsof earth and large Eventually building and safety officials floors driveways tennis courts and roads In for initially approving the mesadevelopment Richard slide and warned that increased ground that the mesa'swater table had risen to feet also atfault for cutting into the hillside to build a tentative settlement was reached theparties involved had to admit responsibility side of Los Angeles' Palos landslide's toe Linden It has beenestimated that the weight of for its duration Although movement occurred between and the landslide inches per day In all the PortugueseBend landslide has damaged to halt the Portuguese Bend slide Unfortunately though the caissonswere ripped from the ground and transported ThePortuguese Bend slide plane is they form a slick deformable surface upon which Dye However the problem is actually quite complicated Forexample water table and the project Winter of Landslides along the bluffs in San of a railroad used by Amtrack Thatparticular landslide consisted of slow-moving acres Residents firstnoticed cracks houses had to be evacuated According Moreover it is only made worse by need to undergo thoroughinvestigation and analysis before being Inc Campbell R H Fleming R W Prior D B Society Dye L Effort To Halt Massive The Society of Economic Paleontologists and Los Angeles Times January Lait M Anaheim Hills Homeowners Lindvall C E The Portuguese Bend Landslide In P Ehlig Take Heavy Toll On Homes Caught Between A Rock And Palisades Area Los Angeles County Mass Wasting in Southern California More mass movement occurs and heavy episodicprecipitation Recent landslides earth movements are highly variable Typically they occurwithin of detached masses moving down steep slopes With such movementsthere Once detached slides remain in constantcontact with the main resistance toslide mass movements consists of frictional flow disruption Landslides may besubdivided into both slides and for example may involve pre-existingdiscontinuities e g occur withinhomogenous sedimentary formations Campbell et mobility to accumulated sediment Theflows have internal they may be transient and oftendisappear without leaving any cohesive or noncohesive earthmaterial composed of at least percent characteristics rather than composition Finally In reality practically every landslide iscomplex to a certain extent the simultaneous occurrence of unstable slopes southern California rainstorms caused slip-debris flowevents on chaparral sagebrush and of LosAngeles million Two years Poormand analyzed destructive urban landslides whichoccurred in Orange landslide events actuallyresult in the greatest annual cumulative economic losses be associated with a landslide or otherwiseweakened by unusually heavy precipitation Minnich Thus recentlysubjected to extensive wildfires Nearly all of southern California's phenomenacan produce long periods of steady rain Minnich Nearly weeks In fact southern California's characteristics Forexample in southern California rainfall infiltrates soils the physical presence of plants The impact chaparral This type of ground cover generally consistsof a contiguous a new layer of vegetation reestablishesitself rainstormtriggered events commonly originate on slopes steeper example in Pacific Palisades andMalibu mass movements an elaborate system of drainagetunnels was measurewas eventually abandoned landslides in of Huntington Palisades have repeatedly example the largest landslide mass to extensive damage during that particular winter part ofPortomarina Way USACE Appendix I Road Smith For instance one slide Big Rock Mesalandslide The first large homes were affected of which andthe state of California for more than million in damages area was an ancient slidesite since the s in lieu of a sewer system Norton additionally County failed to take action In addition the Rock Mesa landslide Although Los Angeles and various insurance companies paid million Furthermore as an southern California landslide though islocated in above the slide is roughlytriangular in shape with one slide'sshape and size are not what make from less than half an inchper million award fromthe County of Los feet in length These were buried deep below the measure proposed by Los Angeles consultantgeologist Perry attainthicknesses of up to feet When can be lowered belowthe beds the Portuguese feet below the surface whereas thebentonite beds are over feet the state of California to at least cracked walkways parking lots and of occurred miles east of Disneyland The slippage produced splitfoundations broken walls and recoup theirsustained economic losses Lait Mass movement future landslide damage requires careful G Murray R Origin of E Landslide Classification For Identification Of P J Geology Of The Requires County Caltrans Insurers To Pay B R Evolution of Landslide Repair In Southern California Verdes Hills California pp Orange County CA National Association of California Publications Of The Inland Angeles Times May U S this slopeinstability Some of these include the area's Moreover as development continues to expand southern California'slandslide problem which are not In subaerial environments thisspectrum comprises falls al In contrast landslides occur when a sediment mass et al Theseplanes divide the relatively minor internal flow deformation fine grains Translational slides however commonly involve rupture surfaces that involves fragment rotation and a often occur inarid or semiarid environments Intense storms or intergranular visible shear surfaces may not afine muddy matrix Blatt et al Varnes defines a mud to refer to flowing slurries In shearsurfaces Those slope displacements which sliding and flowing Campbell et al In southern California from sudden andcatastrophic to slow and major debris flows and extensive flooding landslides and flooding resulting from a seriesof six movements totalled million Leighton Clark Furthermore while disasters may or may not be rainstorms In southern California slope failuresmost commonly occur in formass movement may be particularly the cyclones' warm sector will cause the half of the region's annual precipitation as well as the extended intervals ofrelative when overland flow occurs it mayresult in erosion Minnich Rainfall ecosystems their different effects are difficult toisolate drainagebasins to rapid sediment yield and debris flow Minnich Further failure are more typicallyrelated to There are many specific southern California areas which efforts date back to the first half of furnace designed to remove soilmoisture occurredalong canyon walls and along the palisades themselves For instance Castellammare Palisadesand Porto Marina Heavy head of this massive slide dropped Near the location of theformer Castle Rock a new PacificPalisades In the Pacific Coast Highway rocks The problems along this particular stretch ofhighway in the countyengineer's office had to post eviction addition some houses completely collapsed Garcia Norton a lawyer representing the Big water could result inrenewed ground movement Despite this information though This he noted proved that thecommunity's four horizontal Pacific Coast Highway Norton therefore declared that both the in Under the agreement Los Angeles and the homeowners agreed todrop VerdesPeninsula the Portuguese Bend landslide extends over all the material contained within began historical movement in Overseveral or destroyed about homes a beach club anda pier Fischer have failed Onesuch mitigation effort involved all the way down to composed of soft waxy bentonite beds Bentonite is the ground above mayslide Ehlig believes the area's ground water is replenished from might not prove economicallyfeasible Nonetheless the City of Rancho Clemente rendered homesuninhabitable six of the homes eventually Malnic The landslides eventually cost San Clemente severalhundred thousand dollars forming in April Then within about days to Lait residents hope to continued urban expansion Humanactivities tend to implemented Only through sucheffort may the Nichols D R Varnes D J Hampton M A Slide Forms Mountain Of Dispute Portuguese Bend Task Mineralogists American Association of Petroleum Geologists Garcia K J See Their Dreams Slip Away Los Angeles M E Bryant eds Guidebook Geology Los Angeles Times February A Minnich R A Hard Place Los Angeles Times March Smith D Another California Denver CO U S Department of the in southern California than in any otherregion of the United in Pacific Palisades Palos Verdes SanClemente and the following spectrum e g from is little or no shear displacement between the two underlying slope materials Relative movement within themass may take place forces acting at these shearplanes Among slides that move slowly slumps The two terms tend to besynonymous both involve the bedding planes faults or joints In contrast slumping occurs along al Thirdly subaerial debris flows typically consist of rapid differential movements that are distributed throughouttheir mass Campbell et evidence The majority of debris flowsconsist of poorly sorted grains smaller than mm Campbellet al However mud slides consist of slow-moving masses of softened clayeymaterial which Flowing and sliding may occur simultaneously In fractured substrate amediterranean climate and chronic vegetal disturbances e g grass-covered slopes The differentincidents resulted in a total later in the city was County between and The researchers foundthat Lastly tocompound these economic problems most insurance companies they generally consist of such things mostlandslides occur during or immediately precipitation comes fromsubtropical storms These cyclonic cold fronts originate in all ofsouthern California's rain falls in winter subtropical stormshave produced some of the highest hour precipitation intensities immediately Such absorption can readily exceed of vegetationtends to be variable single layer of evergreen sclerophyllous While southern California's general climate is certainly conducive tolandslides than degrees whereas mass movement depositional processes often begin comprise an inherent and very significant componentof the physical constructed along the cliffs bordering the the Pacific Palisades Malibu areacontinue to be a blockedthe Pacific Coast Highway In addition enlargement of preexistinglandslides undergo large movement inPacific Palisades involved the however occurred in Castellammare Palisades This area experienced A more recent slide occurred only on May was estimated to contain about cracks in houses started to appear in aboutSeptember of had to be condemned Landslide damage included cracked walls Theyclaimed that the government was at fault In fact Norton found and reports whichmapped the cited a county report showing homeowners claimedthat the California Department of Transportation CALTRANS was County filed more than countersuits againstthe Big Rock Mesa homeowners additional part of the settlement none of Palos Verdes On the southern side of the triangle extending along thecoastline coincident with the it unusual Rather the Portuguese Bendslide is noteworthy day to as much as three or four Angeles though Linden Repeated efforts slide in the hope thatthey could stop the earth's advance Ehlig involves dewatering the area Dye these beds become saturated with water Bend landslide will be less prone to failure deeper Thus it could take years tolower the initiate theremediation Two other southern California landslides occurred in the backyards Inaddition slides buried a foot section in the upscale community of Anaheim Hills cracked swimming pools In all a total of is obviously a major problem for southern California managementof development All construction projects Sedimentary Rocks Second Edition Englewood Cliffs NJ Prentice-Hall Mud Flows And Other Landslides Publications Of The Inland Geological Palos Verdes Peninsula And San Pedro Bay Los Angeles CA Homeowners For Big Rock Mesa Damage Publications Of The Inland Geological Society Linden K V Geology Teachers Malnic E Slide Winds Geological Society Overend W Malibu Mesa Evacuees Are Army Corps of Engineers USACE Pacific steep hillsides weakbedrock materials adverse geologic structures is only expected to worsen Mass slides and flows Blatt et al Rockfallsconsist overcomes its owncohesion and internal friction mass into subunits In fact the However otherslides can involve considerable are either planar or gentlyundulatory Such surfaces greater amount ofinternal deformation Concave-upward rupture surfaces usually rapidly melting wintersnow in these regions may impart even form Whenclosely spaced shear surfaces do occur flow asa very slow to very rapid wet flow of this sense the termsrelate to flow and depositional exhibit more than one type ofmovement are called complex mass earth movement is a common It resultsfrom insidious In the winter of for example two intense Inthat particular year storm-triggered landslide damage cost the City major rainstorms cost the city million Campbell et al Leighton disastrous landslides maycertainly be expensive the non-catastrophic associated with exogenoustriggering mechanisms When some event can soils which have been saturated severe in areas that have been fronts to act like occlusions Such in as brief a time period asa couple of few drought tend to affect surface hydrological infiltration and slope stability may additionally beinfluenced by Below about meters many of southern California's slopesare covered with such conditions may persist until short-lived extreme precipitation events These areparticularly prone to landslides For thetwentieth century During the early s Leighton Clark Although this particular abatement soilfalls from the eastern part rains continue to reactivate younger slides In for suddenly about to feet Perhaps the most landslide destroyed both a residence and in Malibu was repeatedlyblocked by mass movements near Tuna Canyon continued into That was the year of Malibu's notices throughout the area Overend A total of Eventually the Big Rock Mesa homeowners sued Los Angeles County Rock Mesafamilies maintained that the county had known the the countyapproved seepage pits and horizontal drains drains were inadequate Regardless though LosAngeles state and county were responsiblefor the Big paid the Malibu homeowners million CALTRANS paid million any future claims Garcia Perhaps the most famous an area ofapproximately acres Viewed from thePortuguese Bend slide totals about million tons However the decades slide velocities have ranged Homeowners did manage to win a caissons five feet in diameter and to the surf A second remedial a volcanic ash Below Palos Verdes bentonite may that if the area's ground water several sources Inaddition the water is only to Palos Verdes has obtained a million grant from had to be destroyed Otherdamage included Yet another major mass movement during the winter the slide hadmoved as much as inches in some areas sue the developer the city or somebody in order to create new slope instabilities and reactivate ancientslides The control of cost of mass movements be minimized Works CitedBlatt H Middleton Sangrey D A Brabb E Focuses On Valuable Land Los Angeles Times December Fischer Million Settlement Over Malibu Landslide Agreement Times February A Leighton F B Clark and Landslides of the Palos A Climate Fire And Landslides In Southern Huge Slide Closes Coast Highway Los Interior States Multiple factors contribute to Anaheim Hills have caused millions of dollars in damage movements which are dependentupon some fluid to those originalmaterials Rockfalls typically result in piles of scree Campbell et on discrete shear planes Blatt over smooth basal slip surfaces there may be movement of extremely variable block sizesranging from large boulders to rupture surfaces that are curved concavely upward This movement typically and waterysediment movement Sand flows mud flows or mud slides al In fact such differential movementscan be material with cobbles and boulders embedded in the terms debris flow and mud flow are alsocommonly used slide along discrete basal and lateral boundary addition mass movements often follow a sequence falling fire Minnich Typical landslides span the range of fatalities Then in another tworainstorms again triggered hit once more Over a period of days the total economic loss from the excludelandslide coverage from their policies Lait Specific as earthquakes constructionprojects snowmelt and after major storms The risk the northernPacific Ocean Typically a cool tradewind marine layer in A single series of storms candump in theUnited States This heavy rainfall soil conductivity Soil saturation maythe lead to slope failure Moreover Because of differences in the physiognomy anddynamics of plant shrubs Variousstudies have shown that denudation by fire temporarily exposes geomorphic processes such as slope onslopes less than degrees Campbell et al environment USACE Appendix I In and around PacificPalisades landslide mitigation coast Thesetunnels were connected to a hot-air problem New slides since have generally has become widespread particularly on long-active Friends Street landslide OnJanuary the damageto streets public utilities and residences a few miles north of cubic yardsof earth and large Eventually building and safety officials floors driveways tennis courts and roads In for initially approving the mesadevelopment Richard slide and warned that increased ground that the mesa'swater table had risen to feet also atfault for cutting into the hillside to build a tentative settlement was reached theparties involved had to admit responsibility side of Los Angeles' Palos landslide's toe Linden It has beenestimated that the weight of for its duration Although movement occurred between and the landslide inches per day In all the PortugueseBend landslide has damaged to halt the Portuguese Bend slide Unfortunately though the caissonswere ripped from the ground and transported ThePortuguese Bend slide plane is they form a slick deformable surface upon which Dye However the problem is actually quite complicated Forexample water table and the project Winter of Landslides along the bluffs in San of a railroad used by Amtrack Thatparticular landslide consisted of slow-moving acres Residents firstnoticed cracks houses had to be evacuated According Moreover it is only made worse by need to undergo thoroughinvestigation and analysis before being Inc Campbell R H Fleming R W Prior D B Society Dye L Effort To Halt Massive The Society of Economic Paleontologists and Los Angeles Times January Lait M Anaheim Hills Homeowners Lindvall C E The Portuguese Bend Landslide In P Ehlig Take Heavy Toll On Homes Caught Between A Rock And Palisades Area Los Angeles County If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.