Studying landslides in order to survive them

in the Swiss countryside that destroyed four towns 74 years earlier.

“A constant marvel with us as we sped along the bases of the steep mountains on this journey was not that avalanches occur, but that they are not occurring all the time,” he wrote. “One does not understand why rocks and landslides do not plunge down these declivities daily.”

UC geology graduate student Nicholas Ferry has been studying the Blue Diamond landslide south of Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Las Vegas has grown very rapidly over the last 20 years. Development is approaching this area where potentially another landslide could happen,” Ferry said.

But Ferry said the region with the most landslides ironically is home to the world’s oldest mountains: the Appalachians.

Ferry decided to come to UC to study geology because of its in-depth work on landslides.

“Of all the schools I applied to, UC was doing the most interesting work. I jumped all over it,” Ferry said. “It’s been pretty exciting.”

Landslides hold tremendous potential energy. In the textbook “Geology of California,” authors Robert Norris and Robert Webb wrote about the incredible force behind an Ice Age landslide in the San Bernardino mountains called Blackhawk. It’s one of the most-studied landslides in the United States, Sturmer said.

“As the slide moved down the canyon (at 170 mph), it passed over a ridge that crosses the canyon and was thus launched into the air — a geologic version of a flying carpet,” Norris and Webb wrote.

Rocks from the slide reached top speeds of 270 mph as they fell more than 4,000 feet and came to rest more than 5 miles away. Sturmer said evidence of that slide is still evident today, despite thousands of years of erosion.

“It’s one of the most-studied landslides in the region. The mountain failed on a ridge. The falling rock was supported on a cushion of air as it traveled,” Sturmer said.

Nevada’s Bureau of Mines and Geology gives residents detailed information about their local risks of natural hazards through an interactive online map, said Rachel Micander, a cartographer for the agency.

“The web application contains data on earthquakes, floods and wildfires, the top three natural hazards in Nevada,” she said. “We also have information on radon. But there is very little about landslides now.”

She studied geology under Sturmer at