{"id":16922,"date":"2015-11-22T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T06:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=16922"},"modified":"2015-11-22T06:52:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T06:52:11","slug":"vasquez-canyon-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2015\/11\/22\/vasquez-canyon-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasquez Canyon: a new landslide in Santa Clarita, California"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Vasquez Canyon landslide<\/h5>\n<p>A significant landslide has developed in the last few days in Vasquez Canyon, in Santa Clarita in California.\u00a0 The landslide, which appears to be progressive and has no obvious recent trigger, has caused extensive buckling of the road, which has been closed over a three kilometre stretch.\u00a0 This image, from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signalscv.com\/m\/section\/36\/article\/145187\/\">Santa Clarita Valley Signal<\/a>, provides quite a good general view of the situation beyond the road:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16925\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16925\" class=\"wp-image-16925 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-1-e1448150320337.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon\" width=\"636\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-1-e1448150320337.jpg 636w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-1-e1448150320337-300x177.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16925\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The landslide, from the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.signalscv.com\/m\/section\/36\/article\/145187\/\"> Santa Clarita Valley Signal<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The landslide has caused impressive damage to the highway:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16926\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16926\" class=\" wp-image-16926\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-2.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-2.jpg 720w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-2-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vasquez Canyon road from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ktla5\/photos\/pcb.10153824420239614\/10153824419724614\/?type=3&amp;permPage=1\">KTLA5<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>interestingly, the media are suggesting that this buckling has occurred because the road is moving upwards.\u00a0 Whilst this might sound a little odd,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ef4e6eybLmk\"> this excellent drone footage<\/a> suggests that this might the case:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ef4e6eybLmk?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a still from the drone footage of the landslides, showing the damage to the highway:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16930\" style=\"width: 848px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16930\" class=\"wp-image-16930 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-3.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon Road via Youtube\" width=\"838\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-3.jpg 838w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-3-300x156.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16930\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vasquez Canyon Road via Youtube<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>This is Google Earth imagery of this section of the road, dated April 2015 &#8211; i.e. seven months ago:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16934\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-4-e1448151141541.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16934\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16934\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-4-e1448151141541.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon\" width=\"640\" height=\"396\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16934\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vasquez Canyon Road via Google Earth<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>There are clearly some signs of instability in this image, and note the other landslides in the image.\u00a0 The section of road that has failed is in a box cut, so it would appear that unloading of the slope may be a key factor in the landslide. And interestingly, this imagery from two years ago (May 2013) suggests significant movement at that time as well:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16937\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-5-e1448151436599.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16937\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16937\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-5-e1448151436599.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon\" width=\"640\" height=\"396\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vasquez Canyon road in 2013 from Google Earth<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, this is Google Street View imagery of the road, taken in 2011:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16941\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-6-e1448151668865.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16941\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16941\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2015\/11\/15_11-Vasquez-Canyon-6-e1448151668865.jpg\" alt=\"Vasquez Canyon road\" width=\"640\" height=\"396\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16941\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vasquez Canyon road via Google street view<\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The extensive deformation in the road was clear even then &#8211; indeed the road shows longitudinal cracks along this entire section.\u00a0 Thus, although this landslide looks very sudden, it has been developing over a prolonged period.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the last few days an interesting landslide has developed in Vasquez Canyon in California, destroying a road<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":16926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[137,469,959,48],"class_list":["post-16922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-california","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}