2022 Chaos Canyon Landslide in Colorado:
Insights revealed by seismic analysis, field investigations, and remote sensing
Insights revealed by seismic analysis, field investigations, and remote sensing
Rainfall intensification amplifies exposure of American Southwest to conditions that trigger postfire debris flows
Improving Postfire Debris-Flow Hazard Assessments In The Pacific Northwest Through Application Of Debris-Flow Models
Landslide Hazards Program
The primary objective of the National Landslide Hazards Program is to reduce long-term losses from landslide hazards by improving our understanding of the causes of ground failure and suggesting mitigation strategies.
Landslide Basics
Landslide Basics
What is a landslide? Where do they happen and what causes them? Learn all about the basics of landslides here.
U.S. and Puerto Rico Landslide Hazard Map
U.S. and Puerto Rico Landslide Hazard Map
New high-resolution map of landslide susceptibility for the entire U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Quick Links
Quick Links
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News
USGS Awards a Dozen Landslide Risk Reduction Grants to Enhance Public Safety and Hazard Preparedness Nationwide
USGS Awards a Dozen Landslide Risk Reduction Grants to Enhance Public Safety and Hazard Preparedness Nationwide
USGS Seeks Landslide Risk Reduction Proposals (FY25)
USGS Seeks Landslide Risk Reduction Proposals (FY25)
USGS experts responding simultaneously to two major natural hazards
USGS experts responding simultaneously to two major natural hazards
Publications
Constraining landslide frequency across the United States to inform county-level risk reduction
Informative landslide hazard estimates are needed to support landslide mitigation strategies to reduce landslide risk across the United States. Whereas existing national-scale landslide susceptibility products assess where landslides are likely to occur, they do not address how often, which is a critical element of landslide hazard and risk assessments. In particular, the U.S. Federal...
Uncertainty reduction for subaerial landslide-tsunami hazards
Subaerial rock slopes may generate a tsunami by rapidly moving into the water. Large uncertainty in landslide characteristics propagates into large uncertainty in tsunami hazard, making hazard assessment more difficult for land and emergency managers. Once a potentially tsunamigenic landslide is identified, it may not be clear which landslide characteristics contribute most significantly...
Assessment of western Oregon debris-flow hazards in burned and unburned environments
In the steep and mountainous environment of western Oregon, debris flows pose a considerable threat to property, infrastructure and life. Wildfire is commonly known to increase the susceptibility of steep slopes to debris flows, but the extent of this process in the western Cascades is not well understood. The US Geological Survey (USGS) currently estimates postfire debris-flow...
Science
Grfin Tools – Methods and software for modeling landslide runout and debris-flow growth and inundation
Grfin Tools is a set of software tools that allows users to quickly estimate potential runout from landslides, and (or) inundation from debris flows or lahars, within a DEM. Grfin (pronounced "griffin") is an acronym of Growth + flow + inundation, and the tools within this package apply simple, well-tested, empirical models of runout. This suite of tools can be used individually or in...
Postfire Debris-flow Runout
Understanding how far debris flows can travel and what the impacts may be is one of the most important questions we face to effectively protect life and property from debris-flow hazards. Click the publications tab to learn more about debris-flow runout research at the USGS.
