{"id":43494,"date":"2023-04-25T05:49:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T05:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=43494"},"modified":"2023-04-25T05:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T05:49:43","slug":"draper-landslide-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2023\/04\/25\/draper-landslide-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The 22 April 2023 landslide in Draper in Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>The 22 April 2023 landslide in Draper in Utah<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kslnewsradio.com\/2000732\/experts-are-warning-of-increased-chances-for-landslides-this-spring\/\">Last week, the State Geologist of Utah, Bill Keach, warned of landslides in Utah this year<\/a>.\u00a0 He made a prescient observation:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe hope our engineering is better. But our urban sprawl has pushed us into areas where we weren\u2019t built before.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A few days later, on 22 April 2023, his warning came to pass when a landslide occurred in the town of Draper in Utah, destroying two houses.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PhBw_dvnt-M\">The event was captured on video that has been posted to Youtube<\/a>:-<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Homes slide off hill in Utah, prompting evacuations\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PhBw_dvnt-M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The landslide occurred on the Hidden Canyon Subdivision.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/drone-footage-shows-collapsed-utah-174934659.html\">There is some good drone footage of the aftermath of failure<\/a>.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/kutv.com\/news\/local\/displaced-families-seek-resolution-after-draper-homes-are-condemned-two-collapse-landslide-edge-homes-suncrest-utah-slide-evacuated-safety-falls-down-hill-mayor-troy-walker\">KUTV has a good gallery of images<\/a>, which includes this view of the upper-reaches of the landslide:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43497\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43497\" class=\" wp-image-43497\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-1.jpg\" alt=\"The aftermath of the landslide at Draper in Utah.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-1.jpg 1003w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43497\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The aftermath of the landslide at Draper in Utah. <a href=\"https:\/\/kutv.com\/news\/local\/displaced-families-seek-resolution-after-draper-homes-are-condemned-two-collapse-landslide-edge-homes-suncrest-utah-slide-evacuated-safety-falls-down-hill-mayor-troy-walker\">Image from KUTV<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>And this image looking down the landslide track:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43499\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43499\" class=\" wp-image-43499\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-2.jpg\" alt=\"The aftermath of the landslide at Draper in Utah. \" width=\"799\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-2.jpg 993w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-2-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43499\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The aftermath of the landslide at Draper in Utah. <a href=\"https:\/\/kutv.com\/news\/local\/displaced-families-seek-resolution-after-draper-homes-are-condemned-two-collapse-landslide-edge-homes-suncrest-utah-slide-evacuated-safety-falls-down-hill-mayor-troy-walker\">Image from KUTV<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>The second image shows a quite mobile landslide, presumably associated with the fine grained soils and the steep terrain.<\/p>\n<p>The two destroyed houses were completed in December 2021 by a developer.\u00a0 Problems emerged in early 2022, as described in a <a href=\"https:\/\/ksltv.com\/513382\/newly-built-homes-deemed-unlivable-due-to-sliding-soil\/\">news report on KSL TV from December 2022<\/a>, which highlights the development of cracks in the structure and in the surrounding ground.\u00a0 Attempts were made to stabilise the properties, but in October 2022 the owners were forced to vacate the buildings. The same report has a video about the site, which includes this still:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43501\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43501\" class=\"size-full wp-image-43501\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-3.jpg\" alt=\"The site of the landslide at Draper in Utah. \" width=\"800\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-3.jpg 800w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-3-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-3-768x398.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43501\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The site of the landslide at Draper in Utah. <a href=\"https:\/\/ksltv.com\/513382\/newly-built-homes-deemed-unlivable-due-to-sliding-soil\/\">Still from a drone video posted by KSL TV<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>It appears that the location of the landslide is [40.486, -111.824]. The image above appears to show cracking of the engineered slope, most notably on the left hand side at the top of the slope.\u00a0 Google Earth imagery from 2020 hints at the reason for this slope &#8211; it appears to suggest that a large amount of fill has been emplaced to create the platform for the houses:-<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43503\" style=\"width: 808px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43503\" class=\" wp-image-43503\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-4.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth image showing the site of the landslide at Draper in Utah. \" width=\"798\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-4.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-4-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-4-1024x598.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/files\/2023\/04\/23_04-Draper-4-768x449.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-43503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Google Earth image showing the site of the landslide at Draper in Utah.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the time of the Draper landslide might indicate that the snowmelt has played a role, the underlying cause will lie in the slope itself.\u00a0 There are two obvious possibilities &#8211; first, that the failure has developed in the fill slope itself; second, that the materials upon which the fill has been emplaced, which is likely to have had a volcanic origin, have failed.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the shape of the landslide I would tend towards the latter explanation, but a proper investigation is needed to verify the cause.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, this is a devastating event for the owners of the lost houses, and for the owners of the other two that have been evacuated.\u00a0 They are entirely blameless.<\/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>On 22 April 2023, a large landslide in a fill slope in Draper, Utah, destroyed two recently constructed houses. Two further houses have been evacuated.<!-- 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":43497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[469,851,959,48,535],"class_list":["post-43494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-featured","tag-fill-slope","tag-landslide-report","tag-usa","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494","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=43494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}