Prehistoric landslide created hidden California lake
NOV 15, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025707
MSNBC : While investigating the Eel River in Northern California to study slow-moving landslides, Benjamin Mackey of Caltech and colleagues found evidence of a giant landslide that dammed the upper reaches of the river about 22 500 years ago and created a 30-mile-long lake about 60 miles southeast of what is now Eureka, California. Their findings match details from other studies that show a dramatic drop in the amount of sediment deposited into the ocean by the Eel River at about the same time. Evidence of the lake has been erased for the most part by subsequent landslide activity and erosion.
© 2011. American Institute of Physics