Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Characterizing the catastrophic 2017 Mud Creek landslide, California, using repeat structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry

  • Technical Note
  • Published:
Landslides Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Along the rugged coast of Big Sur, California, the Mud Creek landslide failed catastrophically on May 20, 2017, and destroyed over 400 m of scenic California State Highway 1. We collected structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry data using airborne platforms that, when combined with existing airborne lidar data, revealed that the area exhibited significant topographic change and displacement before, during, and after the catastrophic failure. Before the catastrophic failure, we document two areas of elevated change in the zone of depletion, which aligned with the double-peaked head scarp produced by the catastrophic failure. The catastrophic failure extended from 337-m elevation to at least 8 m below sea level, was 490 m wide, displaced ~ 3 million m3 of earth and rock, and deposited landslide debris at least 175 m seaward of the original shoreline. The failure was not a complete slope-clearing event, however, and several upslope and lateral regions that did not slip into the ocean exhibited significant displacement and topographic change during the days and months after the catastrophic failure. Additionally, we use the post-slide data to quantify several other processes, including the time-varying rates of talus accumulation and coastal erosion of the landslide toe. We conclude that repeat SfM surveys from aerial imagery can provide valuable information about landslide evolution and the potential for deep-seated landslide hazards—especially in the lead up to catastrophic failure—if photos are collected and processed regularly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

References

  • Adams PN, Anderson RS, Revenaugh J (2002) Microseismic measurement of wave-energy delivery to a rocky coast. Geology 30(10):895–898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey EH, Irwin WP, Jones DL (1964) Franciscan and related rocks and their significance in the geology of western California. Calif Div Min Geol Bull:183 177 p

  • Bromhead EN, Ibsen ML (2006) A review of landsliding and coastal erosion damage to historic fortifications in South East England. Landslides 3(4):341–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) (2017) Massive landslide on highway 1 at Mud Creek is latest in storm damage. Caltrans News Release, June 29, 2017. [http://www.dot.ca.gov/paffairs/pr/2017/prs/17pr064.html; accessed 21 Apr 2018]

  • Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) (2018) State route 1/Mud Creek will open tomorrow, Wednesday July 18 by 10 AM. Caltrans News Release, July 17, 2018. [http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/paffairs/misc_pr/traffic_advisory_mud_creek_roadway_reopens_wednesday_7.18.18.pdf; accessed 1 Feb 2019]

  • Collins BD, Sitar N (2008) Processes of coastal bluff erosion in weakly lithified sands, Pacifica, California, USA. Geomorphology 97(3–4):483–501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook KL (2017) An evaluation of the effectiveness of low-cost UAVs and structure from motion for geomorphic change detection. Geomorphology 278:195–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corominas J (1996) The angle of reach as a mobility index for small and large landslides. Can Geotech J 33(2):260–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson RJ, Dickson ME, Nicholls RJ, Hall JW, Walkden MJ, Stansby PK, Mokrech M, Richards J, Zhou J, Milligan J, Jordan A, Pearson S, Rees J, Bates PD, Koukoulas S, Watkinson AR (2009) Integrated analysis of risks of coastal flooding and cliff erosion under scenarios of long term change. Clim Chang 95(1–2):249–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dickson ME, Walkden MJ, Hall JW (2007) Systemic impacts of climate change on an eroding coastal region over the twenty-first century. Clim Chang 84(2):141–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emery KO, Kuhn GG (1982) Sea cliffs: their processes, profiles, and classification. Geol Soc Am Bull 93(7):644–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall CA, Jr. (1991) Geology of the point Sur-Lopez point region, coast ranges, California—a part of the Southern California allochthon: Geological Society of America Special Paper 266, 40 p

  • Hampton MA, Griggs GB (2004) Formation, evolution, and stability of coastal cliffs–status and trends. US Geol Surv Prof Paper 1693:123

    Google Scholar 

  • Hapke CJ, Green KR (2004) Map showing coastal cliff retreat rates along the Big Sur coast, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map, California, p 2853

    Google Scholar 

  • Hapke CJ, Green KR (2006) Coastal landslide material loss rates associated with severe climatic events. Geology 34(12):1077–1080

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hapke CJ, Reid D (2007) National assessment of shoreline change part 4: historical coastal cliff retreat along the California coast. U. S. Geol Surv Open-File Rep 2007-1133, 51 p

  • Harp EL, Jibson RW (1996) Landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. Bull Seismol Soc Am 86(1B):S319–S332

    Google Scholar 

  • Hovius N, Stark CP, Allen PA (1997) Sediment flux from a mountain belt derived by landslide mapping. Geology 25(3):231–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iverson RM (2000) Landslide triggering by rain infiltration. Water Resour Res 36(7):1897–1910

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson SY, Watt JT, Hartwell SR, Kluesner JW (2018) Neotectonics of the Big Sur Bend, San Gregorio-Hosgri fault system, central California. Tectonics 37:1930–1954

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • JRPHCS (JRP Historical Consulting Services) (2001) A history of road closures along Highway 1, Big Sur, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, California. Prepared for California Department of Transportation District 5, 50 p

  • Keefer DK, Johnson AM (1983) Earth flows: morphology, mobilization and movement: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1264. 56 p

  • Keefer DK, Larsen MC (2007) Assessing landslide hazards. Science 316:1136–1138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lague D, Brodu N, Leroux J (2013) Accurate 3D comparison of complex topography with terrestrial laser scanner: application to the Rangitikei canyon (NZ). ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 82:10–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen IJ, Montgomery DR, Korup O (2010) Landslide erosion controlled by hillslope material. Nat Geosci 3(4):247–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Limber PW, Barnard PL, Vitousek S, Erikson LH (2018) A model ensemble for projecting multidecadal coastal cliff retreat during the 21st century. J Geophys Res Earth Surf. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004401

  • Lucieer A, Jong SMD, Turner D (2014) Mapping landslide displacements using structure from motion (SfM) and image correlation of multi-temporal UAV photography. Prog Phys Geogr 38(1):97–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malamud BD, Turcotte DL, Guzzetti F, Reichenbach P (2004) Landslides, earthquakes, and erosion. Earth Planet Sci Lett 229(1–2):45–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore LJ, Griggs GB (2002) Long-term cliff retreat and erosion hotspots along the central shores of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Mar Geol 181(1–3):265–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • NOAA OCM (Office for Coast ManagCoastal Management), California state coastal conservancy ocean protection council, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, joint airborne lidar bathymetry technical center of expertise (2012) 2009–2011 California Coastal Conservancy Coastal Lidar Project Data, online at https://coast.noaa.gov/htdata/lidar1_z/geoid12a/data/1124/

  • Nouwakpo SK, Weltz MA, McGwire K (2016) Assessing the performance of structure-from-motion photogrammetry and terrestrial LiDAR for reconstructing soil surface microtopography of naturally vegetated plots. Earth Surf Process Landf 41(3):308–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petley D (2012) Global patterns of loss of life from landslides. Geology 40(10):927–930

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid ME, Nielsen HP, Dreiss SJ (1988) Hydrologic factors triggering a shallow hillslope failure. Bull Assoc Eng Geol 25(3):349–361

  • Ritchie AC, Warrick JA Logan J (2019) Topographic point clouds for the Mud Creek landslide, Big Sur, California from structure-from-motion photogrammetry from aerial photographs. U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P973FQ3M

  • Rosser NJ, Petley DN, Lim M, Dunning SA, Allison RJ (2005) Terrestrial laser scanning for monitoring the process of hard rock coastal cliff erosion. Q J Eng Geol Hydrogeol 38(4):363–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt KM, Reid ME (2007) Rock strength, geology, and landsliding along the Big Sur coast, CA: First North American Landslide Conference, Vail, Colorado, USA, June 3–8, 2007, Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists, pp. 1717–1727

  • Sherwood CR, Warrick JA, Hill AD, Ritchie AC, Andrews BD, Plant NG (2018) Rapid, remote assessment of Hurricane Matthew impacts using 4D structure-from-motion photogrammetry. J Coast Res. https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-18-00016R1

  • Sidle RC, Furuichi T, Kono Y (2011) Unprecedented rates of landslide and surface erosion along a newly constructed road in Yunnan, China. Nat Hazards 57(2):313–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sithole G, Vosselman G (2004) Experimental comparison of filter algorithms for bare-earth extraction from airborne laser scanning point clouds. ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 59(1–2):85–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spaete LP, Glenn NF, Derryberry DR, Sankey TT, Mitchell JJ, Hardegree SP (2011) Vegetation and slope effects on accuracy of a LiDAR-derived DEM in the sagebrush steppe. Remote Sens Lett 2(4):317–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturdivant EJ, Lentz EE, Thieler ER, Farris AS, Weber KM, Remsen DP, Miner S, Henderson RE (2017) UAS-SfM for coastal research: geomorphic feature extraction and land cover classification from high-resolution elevation and optical imagery. Remote Sens 9(10):1020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) (2017) Lidar point cloud - USGS National Map 3DEP downloadable data collection: U.S. Geological Survey.

  • Varnes DJ (1978) Slope movement types and processes. In: Schuster RL, Krizek RJ (eds) Landslides, analysis and control, special report 176: transportation research board. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., pp 11–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Varnes DJ (1984) Landslide hazard zonation: a review of principles and practice. UNESCO, Paris 63 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace L, Lucieer A, Malenovský Z, Turner D, Vopěnka P (2016) Assessment of forest structure using two UAV techniques: a comparison of airborne laser scanning and Structure from Motion (SfM) point clouds. Forests 7:62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warrick JA, Ritchie AC, Adelman G, Adelman K, Limber PW (2017) New techniques to measure cliff change from historical oblique aerial photographs and structure-from-motion photogrammetry. J Coast Res 33(1):39–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson MW, Jones RR, Woods CE, Gilment SR, McCaffrey KJW, Kokkalas S, Long JJ (2016) A comparison of terrestrial laser scanning and structure-from-motion photogrammetry as methods for digital outcrop acquisition. Geosphere 12(6):1865–1880

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wills CJ, Manson MW, Brown KD, Davenport CW, Domrose CJ (2001) Landslides in the highway 1 corridor: geology and slope stability along the Big Sur coastal between Point Lobos and San Carpoforo Creek, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, California. California Geological Survey Special Report 185. 42 p

  • Young AP (2015) Recent deep-seated coastal landsliding at San Onofre State Beach, California. Geomorphology 228:200–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young AP, Ashford SA (2006) Application of airborne LIDAR for seacliff volumetric change and beach-sediment budget contributions. J Coast Res 22(2):307–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young AP, Guza RT, Flick RE, O'Reilly WC, Gutierrez R (2009) Rain, waves, and short-term evolution of composite seacliffs in southern California. Mar Geol 267(1–2):1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young AP, Adams PN, O'Reilly WC, Flick RE, Guza RT (2011) Coastal cliff ground motions from local ocean swell and infragravity waves in southern California. J Geophys Res 116:C09007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young AP, Flick RE, O'Reilly WC, Chadwick DB, Crampton WC, Helly JJ (2014) Estimating cliff retreat in southern California considering sea level rise using a sand balance approach. Mar Geol 348:15–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for review comments by Jeffrey Coe, Cees van Westen, and an anonymous reviewer that improved the paper markedly. Bob Van Wagenen of EcoScan Resource Data flew all small airplane flights and operated a camera system designed and built by Tim Elfers, Peter Harkins and Gerry Hatcher of the USGS. Elizabeth Haddon (USGS) led efforts to provide survey-grade positions on prominent boulders in the study area for ground control. Support for these efforts comes from both the Coastal and Marine Geology Program and the Landslides Hazards Program under the USGS Natural Hazards Mission Area.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Jonathan A. Warrick, Andrew C. Ritchie & Joshua Logan

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Kevin M. Schmidt & Mark E. Reid

Authors
  1. Jonathan A. Warrick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrew C. Ritchie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kevin M. Schmidt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mark E. Reid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Joshua Logan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan A. Warrick.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(PDF 75 kb)

ESM 2

(GIF 8081 kb)

ESM 3

(PDF 10117 kb)

ESM 4

(PDF 175586 kb)

ESM 5

(PDF 15463 kb)

ESM 6

(PDF 64659 kb)

ESM 7

(PDF 94721 kb)

ESM 8

(PDF 15410 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Warrick, J.A., Ritchie, A.C., Schmidt, K.M. et al. Characterizing the catastrophic 2017 Mud Creek landslide, California, using repeat structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry. Landslides 16, 1201–1219 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01160-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01160-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation