Discover the Thrill: Top 8 Astonishing Landslide Fun Facts You Need to Know!

1. USA's Real Estate Reorganization

Whoever said "what goes up must come down" must've had a premonition about landslides: as Mother Nature's way of reorganizing real estate, they've caused quite a stir in the USA. Exhibit A: the Oso, WA landslide in 2014, with a tragic 43 fatalities, and Exhibit B: the Montecito, CA debris flows in 2018, wiping out 23 lives. These natural demolition crews remind us that landslides are a significant hazard requiring a comprehensive map of occurrence across the nation for better risk reduction and disaster management planning.
Source => link.springer.com

2. Zion National Park: Mother Nature's Prank

If Mother Nature were a world-class architect with a sense of humor, Zion National Park would be her radical design prank on humanity: This geological wonder was formed by a massive landslide about 4,800 years ago, which, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it 60 to 90 seconds, raced at lightning speeds of up to 180 mph and dumped debris large enough to smother New York City's Central Park under 275 feet of rocky mayhem. In the aftermath, Mother Nature's mischief dammed the Virgin River, creating a temporary lake that hung around for 700 years, and established Zion as the perilously sliding masterpiece we tread upon today.
Source => deseret.com

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=> Fun Facts about Avalanches

3. Slow & Steady: The Sloth-Like Landslide

While lazy creatures like sloths and snails might seem oh-so-stoic on the big screen, nature's true heavyweight in the leisurely motion department is none other than the landslide, the "slow and steady" underdog of mother nature's resume: Specifically, the slow-motion landslides, such as earth flows that can move at a snail's pace of one meter per year and have the endurance to last for centuries, like the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado that's been at it for a whopping 300 years! With modern geospatial technologies, scientists can now accurately track the party's pace as it inches along with intricate detail down to the centimeter.
Source => geographyrealm.com

4. Landslides: The Tsunami Engineers

Who needs earthquakes when you've got landslides with a hidden talent for making monstrous waves? Surf's up, but not in a fun way: Landslides, whether occurring on land or underwater, can create devastating tsunamis that may even overshadow the impact of their earthquake-caused counterparts, thanks to their uncanny ability to displace massive amounts of water and send shockwaves toward unsuspecting shores within minutes.
Source => weather.gov

5. Trees Gossiping About Landslide Air Blasts

If trees could talk, they'd probably scream when landslides come barreling down the mountain: studies show that powerful air blasts from landslides can wreak havoc on our towering timber friends, as the duration of the blast often matches the tree's natural vibration period. The destruction provides insight into the air blast intensity and helps scientists study the forces at play – it's a real conversation starter among the stumps!
Source => researchgate.net

6. Earth Shakes a Leg: Volcanic Cone Landslides

Imagine if the earth had to shake a leg – or, in this case, a mountain: Landslides on volcanic cones can range in size from less than 1 km3 to over 100 km3, with the 1980 Mount St. Helens landslide clocking in at a whopping 2.5 km3 and speeds of 50-80 m/s, bold enough to surge up a 400-m-tall ridge located about 5 km away.
Source => usgs.gov

7. Canary Islands' Tsunami-Generating Volcano Landslides

Hold on to your swim trunks, because this fact might just wave goodbye to coastal tranquility: Scientists have uncovered evidence of colossal volcano landslides in the Canary Islands, caused by earthquakes and capable of generating massive tsunami waves that could reach as far as the eastern coast of North America, posing a risk to human settlements and coastal ecosystems.
Source => usgs.gov

8. Earth's Jenga Game: The Xinmo Landslide

When the earth decided to play Jenga with boulders, things got a wee bit disastrous: The Xinmo landslide in Sichuan Province, China, was a rapid-moving flow-like rockslide resulting in 83 fatalities and obliterating the entire Xinmo village.
Source => link.springer.com