Landslide Program
Members

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Current Activities:
Landslide Hazard Assessment - Seattle, WA

• Recent landslides on coastal bluffs near Seattle, Washington
• Landslides Triggered by the Winter 1996-97 Storms in the Puget Lowland, Washington
• Monitoring and Analysis of Woodway landslide and adjacent bluffs - Woodway, WA
• Analysis of the Woodway landslide
• Monitoring near surface hydrology of unstable coastal bluffs - Snohomish County, WA
• Joint U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines Geotechnical Laboratory - Golden, CO

Areas of Expertise:

• Engineering geology and geomorphology, mechanics and hydrology of landslides, landslide hazards mapping, effects of human-induced changes in surface drainage and hillslope loading on slope stability

Other recent reports online:

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Cannon, Sue

Current Activities:

Emergengy Assessment of Debris-Flow Hazards from Basins Burned by the Padua Fire of 2003, Southern California. (posted March 26, 2004)

Emergency Assessment of Debris-Flow Hazards from Basins Burned by the Cedar and Paradise Fires of 2003, Southern California (OF-04-1011) (posted January 20, 2004)

Emergency Assessment of Debris-Flow Hazards from Basins Burned by the Piru, Simi, and Verdale Fires of 2003, Southern California. (OFR-03-0481)

Emergency Assessment of Debris-Flow Hazards from Basins Burned by the Grand Prix and Old Fires of 2003, Southern California. (OFR-03-0475)

Assessment of Potential Debris-Flow Peak Discharges from Basins Burned by the 2002 Coal Seam Fire, Colorado. (OFR-03-0333)

Assessment of Potential Debris-Flow Peak Discharges from Basins Burned by the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire, Colorado. (OFR-03-0332)

• Fire-Related Debris Flows
• Database of Fire-Related Runoff Events
  

Areas of Expertise:

• Engineering geology, soil mechanics and geomorphology; areas of special interest include threshold rainfall conditions necessary to trigger debris flows, debris flow travel-distance potential, and the effects of wildfire on landslide and debris-flow activity.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Chleborad, Alan

Current Activities:

• Method for anticipating the occurrence of precipitation-induced landslides, Seattle, WA area.
• Precipitation threshold for anticipating the occurrance of landslides in the Seattle, WA area.
• Snowmelt-induced landslides - Western U.S.

Areas of Expertise:

• Engineering geology, soil mechanics, slope stability; topics of special interest include landslide forecasting, snowmelt-induced landslides, and landslide hazard assessment.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Coe, Jeff

Current Activities:

Landslide hazards in central Colorado

• GPS monitoring along the I-70 corridor
• Ridge-spreading movements (Sackungen) near Leadville
• Debris flows along the Interstate 70 corridor - A fieldtrip guidebook
• Map showing Alpine debris flows in the Front Range
• Historical debris flows along I-70 (AEG Special Pub. No. 15), PDF file
• Debris-flow probability along I-70, PDF file
  
  (Acrobat Reader required to open PDF versions)

Landslide recurrence intervals and probabilities in Seattle, Washington

• Map report showing landslide densities, recurrence intervals, and probabilities
• Methods used to calculate probabilities
• Count-circle method used to determine densities
• "Probabilistic assessment using historical records of landslide occurrence", PDF ARTICLE FILE & PDF MAPS FILE

Monitoring the Slumgullion landslide, southwestern, Colorado

• 1998/99 GPS data
• Preliminary interpretation of 1998/99 GPS data
• July 2000 Topographic map
• "Engineering Geology" paper (Feb. 2003), PDF file

Landslide hazards in Alameda County, California

• Damaging landslides triggered by 1997/98 El Niņo generated rainstorms
• Debris Flows Triggered by the El Niño Rainstorm of February 2-3, 1998, Walpert Ridge and Vicinity.

Landslide hazards in Guatemala

• Landslides triggered by Hurricane Mitch in Guatemala -- Inventory and Discussion.
• "Landslide susceptibility from topography in Guatemala", PDF FILE

Areas of Expertise:

• geomorphology
• landslide hazard mapping
• paleoseismology
• application of remote sensing, photogrammetric, and Global Positioning System tools for landslide mapping and monitoring

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

U.S. Geological Survey
Western Regional Mapping Team
345 Middlefield Road, MS 910
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Ellis, William (Bill)

Current Activities:

• Landslide Instrumentation, Monitoring and Warning Systems Development and Implementation - Nationwide
• The Bluegill landslide, Idaho (Bureau of Land Management)
• The DeBeque Canyon landslide, Colorado (Colorado Geological Survey and Colorado Department of Transportation)

Areas of Expertise:

• Geomechanics, engineering geology, stress measurement, field instrumentation remote landslide monitoring

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

CurrentActivities:

• Landslide Hazards to Infrastructure - I-70 corridor, Floyd Hill to Georgetown, CO
• Interferometric and GPS monitoring of the Slumgullion Earthflow - Lake City, CO
• Distributed Modeling of Landslide Hazards - Seattle, WA

Areas of Expertise:

• Geographical analysis of landslide hazards, distributed modeling, GPS surveying
   

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Graymer, Russell

Current activities:

• Project Chief-Northern California Landslide Working Group
  

Areas of Expertise:

• Digital geologic mapping, statistical analysis of landslide susceptibility

U.S. Geological Survey
345 Middlefield Rd, MS 975
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Harp, Ed

Current Activities:

• Emergency Response Coordinator - Nationwide
• Seismic landslide Hazard Mapping - Los Angeles, CA
• Landslide Hazard Mapping - Seattle, WA
• Landslide Instrumentation and Monitoring - Seattle, WA and California

Areas of Expertise:
Enginering geology, rock mechanics, soil mechanics, hazard mapping

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Highland, Lynn

Current Activities:

• National Landslide Information Center - Nationwide
• Landslide Hazard National Initiative - Nationwide

Areas of Expertise:

• Outreach, public information

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Iverson, Dick

Current Activities:

Mass Movement Dynamics - Experimental Debris-Flow Flume

Areas of Expertise:

Scientific understanding of debris flows through debris-flow flume studies.

U.S. Geological Survey
Cascades Volcano Observatory
1300 SE Cardinal Court, Bldg 10, Suite 100
Vancouver, WA 98683

Kibler, Dave

Current Activities:

• Landslide Instrumentation, Monitoring and Warning Systems Development and Implementation - Nationwide

Areas of Expertise:

• Geomechanical instrumentation, electronics, remote monitoring

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 964
Denver CO 80225

Lidke, Dave

Current Activities:

Colluvium thickness and characterization studies -- Seattle, WA

Areas of Expertise:

Bedrock and surficial geologic mapping, photogeologic mapping, and structural geology.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

McKenna, Jonathan

Current Activities:

• Monitoring near surface hydrology of unstable coastal bluffs - Snohomish County, WA.
• Joint U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines Geotechnical Labratory - Golden, CO.
• Developing and understanding soil water characteristic functions for application into slope stability models.
• Studying the effects of fire and the role that heat plays on the hydrologic characteristics of soils.
• Mapping recen and historical landslides/debris flows using LIDAR imagery.
  

Areas of Expertise:

• Geotechnical analysis, geographic information systems, field instrumentation and remote landslide monitoring.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Pike, Richard

Current Activities:

• Modeling regional landslide susceptibility from digital map information (Oakland, CA, Project Impact study)
• San Francisco Bay Region landslide digital database
• "Landslides and cities—an unwanted partnership" -- AGU book chapter
• Topographic signatures of slope-instability processes

Areas of Expertise:

• Terrain modeling ("geomorphometry")
• DEM (digital elevation model) derivatives
• Quantitative regional geomorphology

U.S. Geological Survey
Western Earth Surface Processes Team
345 Middlefield Road, MS 975
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Reid, Mark

Current Activities:

• Landslide Hazards on Volcanoes - Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainer, WA
• Experimental Studies of Debris-Flow Initiation - USGS debris-flow flume, OR
• Real-Time Monitoring of Active Landslides - Highway 50, Sierra Nevada, CA

Areas of Expertise:

• Hillslope hydrology, engineering geology, soil mechanics. Areas of special interest include the hydrologic triggering of debris flows and landslides, large slope failures on volcanoes, and the real-time monitoring of active landslides

U.S. Geological Survey
Volcano Hazards Team
345 Middlefield Road, MS 910
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Savage, William (Bill)
Current Activities:

• Landslide Modeling - Western U.S.

Areas of Expertise:

• Field and theoretical investigation of landslides, gravitational spreading and near-surface crustal stresses.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Schulz, William (Bill)

Current Activities:

• Characterization of hydrogeologic conditions in unconsolidated sediments and effects on slope stability - Seattle, Washington.
• Travel distance and hazards of rapid landslides – Seattle, Washington.

Areas of Expertise:

• Engineering geology, detailed geologic mapping and subsurface exploration, soil mechanics, landslide characterization and hazard assessment.
• Field and theoretical studies of landslides.

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Schuster, Robert (Bob) (scientist emeritus)

U.S. Geological Survey
Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

Wilson, Ray
Current Activities:

• Rainfall Threholds for Debris Flows and Other Landslides - San Francisco Bay Region, CA; Western U.S.

Areas of Expertise:

• Geomechanics, precipitation climatography, probability models, seismic slope stability

U.S. Geological Survey
Earthquake Hazards Team
345 Middlefield Road, MS 977
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Wieczorek, Gerry
Current Activities:

• Debris Flows Triggered by the June 27, 1995 Storm - Madison County, VA
• Rock-fall Potential in the Yosemite Valley, California
• Rockfall Hazard Assessment - Yosemite National Park, CA
• Investigations of debris flows triggered by December14-16, 1999 storm in Venezuela
• Debris flows triggered by Hurricane Camille, August, 1969 - Nelson County, VA

Areas of Expertise:

• engineering geology and geomorphology
• soil mechanics
• landslide hazards mapping and assessment
• landslide monitoring and slope stability analysis

U.S. Geological Survey
MS 926A National Center
Reston VA 20192

Central Region Geologic Hazards Team
Box 25046, DFC
Mail Stop 966
Denver CO 80225

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