Landslides News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Land Under Water: What Causes Extreme Flooding?

Mar. 27, 2024 — If rivers overflow their banks, the consequences can be devastating -- just like the catastrophic floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate of 2021 showed. In order to limit flood damage and optimize flood risk assessment, we need to ...

New Detection Method Aims to Warn of Landslide Tsunamis

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami ...

Clearing Mangroves Makes 'Muddification' Worse

Nov. 15, 2023 — Clearing mangroves to stop estuaries getting clogged with mud actually makes the problem worse, new research ...

100-Year Floods Could Occur Yearly by End of 21st Century

Sep. 13, 2023 — Most coastal communities will encounter '100-year floods' annually by the end of the century, even under a moderate scenario where carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2040, according to a new study. And as early as 2050, regions worldwide could ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:54pm EDT

Surprising Insights About Debris Flows on Mars

Mar. 14, 2024 — The period that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars may have been shorter than previously thought. Channel landforms called gullies, previously thought to be formed exclusively by liquid ...

New Dates for Landslides Reveal Past Seattle Fault Earthquakes

Nov. 7, 2023 — New maps of more than 1,000 deep-seated landslides in the Puget Lowlands of Washington State provide evidence of the last major earthquake along the Seattle Fault about 1,100 years ago -- and may ...

Climate Protection: Land Use Changes Cause the Carbon Sink to Decline

Aug. 10, 2023 — Terrestrial carbon sinks can mitigate the greenhouse effect. Researchers pooled various data sources and found that European carbon storage takes place mainly in surface biomass in East Europe. ...

Nitrogen Runoff Strategies Complicated by Climate Change

Aug. 8, 2023 — As climate change progresses, rising temperatures may impact nitrogen runoff from land to lakes and streams more than projected increases in total and extreme precipitation for most of the ...

Saltwater or Freshwater? Difference Is Large for the Climate When We Flood Low Lying Areas

July 18, 2023 — Researchers find large methane emissions: 'Do not flood low-lying areas with freshwater'. Their studies find that freshwater lakes emit much more ...

What Causes Mudslides and Floods After Wildfires? Hint: It's Not What Scientists Thought

July 17, 2023 — Scientists once assumed that flooding and mudslides after wildfires were linked to the waxy coating that builds up on charred soil, preventing water ...

Salinity Changes Threatening Marine Ecosystems

July 12, 2023 — A groundbreaking study reveals the critical yet severely understudied factor of salinity changes in ocean and coastlines caused by climate ...

Geologists Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Predict Landslides

June 28, 2023 — Many factors influence where a landslide will occur, including the shape of the terrain, its slope and drainage areas, the material properties of soil and bedrock, and environmental conditions like ...

Coastal Species Persist on High Seas on Floating Plastic Debris

Apr. 17, 2023 — The high seas have been colonized by a surprising number of coastal marine invertebrate species, which can now survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to the floating community ...

Increased Droughts Are Disrupting Carbon-Capturing Soil Microbes, Concerning Ecologists

Apr. 12, 2023 — Soil stores more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined, and soil microbes are largely responsible for putting it there. However, the ...

Stronger Storms Free More Nutrients from Mud Flats

Feb. 22, 2024 — If storms become stronger in the future due to climate change, more nitrogen may be released from the bottom of coastal ...

Some Coastal Salt Marshes Are Keeping Up With Sea Level Rise -- For Now

Mar. 28, 2023 — The world's salty, tidal marshes are hotspots of carbon storage and productivity, building up sediments and plant material to stay above sea level. However, as sea level rises at an increasing ...

East Coast, US, Landslide Impacts from Puerto Rico to Vermont and in Between

Mar. 15, 2023 — In the U.S., we may often think of landslides as primarily a West Coast problem, mostly plaguing the mountainous terrain of California, Oregon, and Washington. New research highlights the major ...

Mississippi River Delta Study Reveals Which Human Actions Contribute to Land Loss

Mar. 6, 2023 — Scientists reveal new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta -- crucial information in determining solutions to the ...

Reassessment of Storegga Event: Second Major Landslide Recognized

Mar. 1, 2023 — Submarine landslides have a large tsunami potential and occurred on the central Norwegian shelf more frequently in the past than previously thought. Scientists investigate the Nyegga landslide off ...

A Changing Flood Recipe for Las Vegas

Jan. 18, 2023 — Las Vegas, with its rapid urbanization and desert landscape, is highly vulnerable to flooding. For this reason, flood managers have built an extensive system of drainage ditches and detention basins ...

Most Plastic Debris on Seychelles Beaches Comes from Far-Off Sources

Jan. 18, 2023 — A new modelling study shows that the Seychelles and other islands in the western Indian Ocean are not responsible for most of the plastic waste that accumulates on their beaches. Indonesia, India, ...

Study Shows Landbuilding, Site of Freshwater Diversion

Dec. 1, 2022 — Supporters of the large-scale Mississippi River sediment diversions currently being planned by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority got a boost to their case recently when ...

Landslide Risk Remains Years After Even a Weak Earthquake

Nov. 30, 2022 — Satellite observations have revealed that weak seismic ground shaking can trigger powerful landslide acceleration -- even several years after a significant ...

Satellites Cast Critical Eye on Coastal Dead Zones

Nov. 21, 2022 — Scientists have found a new and better way to use remote sensing to understand where coastal dead zones are and predict ...

Using 1980s Environmental Modeling to Mitigate Future Disasters: Could Japan's 3/11 Disaster Have Been Prevented?

Nov. 11, 2022 — On March 11, 2011, multiple catastrophes in Japan were triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, including the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event, also ...

Report Outlines Plans for Major Research Effort on Subduction Zone Geologic Hazards

Nov. 7, 2022 — Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, produce the most devastating seismic, volcanic, and landslide hazards on the planet. A new report presents an ambitious plan to make ...

Physics of Disaster: How Mudslides Move

Nov. 1, 2022 — A devastating fire followed by an intense rainstorm triggered mudslides in Southern California in 2018 that claimed 23 lives. New findings elucidate the physics behind the deadly disaster that may ...

Seismic Sensing Reveals Flood Damage Potential

Oct. 13, 2022 — Rapidly evolving floods are a major and growing hazard worldwide. Currently, their onset and evolution is hard to identify using existing systems. However, seismic sensors already in place to detect ...

Under Pressure: Rethinking Coastal Land Use and Adaptation Strategies

Oct. 12, 2022 — Researchers recently published a study looking at land use changes from the past and the importance of taking factors such as socio-economic development and the dynamic nature of coastal environments ...

Report Shows Tectonics to Be Main Driver of Hillslope 'Connectivity'

Oct. 12, 2022 — A new large-scale analysis of hillslope connectivity at the continental scale was recently published. The study gives new understanding of mechanisms that determine how effectively hillslopes drive ...

New Nationwide Strategy Brings Scientists, Communities Together to Help Reduce Landslide Risks

Sep. 29, 2022 — Landslides are inevitable, but landslide disasters are not. With this in mind, the U.S. Geological Survey has released a new report that details the strategic actions necessary to equitably reduce ...

Ancient Landslide Destroyed Area Size of Cincinnati

Aug. 29, 2022 — University of Cincinnati geologists reconstructed a massive landslide in Nevada that wiped out an area the size of a small city more than 5 million years ago. Researchers pieced together details of ...

We Need to Change How We Think About Soil

Aug. 2, 2022 — With record temperatures this summer along with dry conditions, ongoing concerns about food security, wildlife habitats and biodiversity, having a healthy soil system is more vital and challenging ...

How Charred Detritus Dispersed from Goleta Beach in Wake of 2018 Montecito, California, Debris Flow

July 28, 2022 — The catastrophic debris flow that affected Montecito, Calif., in early January, 2018 was the result of a rare confluence of severe events. The Thomas Fire had been raging for weeks in Ventura and ...