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Landslide Photo Collections

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The winter storms of January and February 2005 triggered widespread landslide activity in the Southern California region. On March 16 and 17, 2005, Mark Reid and Jonathan Godt of the U.S. Geological Survey's Landslide Hazards Program and Pam Irvine of the California Geological Survey, performed an aerial reconnaissance to assess the regional distribution of recent landslides and identify areas with exceptional concentrations of landsliding. The aerial reconnaissance extended from the Ventura-Santa Barbara County line to northern San Diego County. The photographs shown provide a preliminary overview of landsliding in the region, but are not a comprehensive inventory of either landslides that occurred that winter season or of damage caused by landslides.

  • Scattered recent shallow landslides and landslide scars that may be from previous years east of Thousand Oaks.
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  • Recent failure of the south bank of the Santa Clara River.
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  • Map showing location of other photos in this album.
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  • Fresh sediment in tributary of the North Fork of Lytle Creek.
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  • Recent shallow landslides and debris flows near and on large active earthflow north of the Santa Clara River valley.
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  • Recent shallow landslides along road cut on the south side of the Santa Clara River Valley. Some of the landslide scars shown in this photograph may be from previous years.
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  • Hillslopes in the Cedar fire area east of San Diego.
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  • Small, recent (2005) shallow landslides in older scars from previous years, east of I-5 in Orange County, CA. Photograph taken on March 16, 2005 by Jonathan Godt, U.S. Geological Survey.
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