2 Comments

• never ending fight for freedom says:

  February 7, 2009 at 7:21 pm

  Give it a while, by march they will be slipping & sliding. It doesn’t happen overnight. But why am I telling you this, you guys are the “experts”
• DeeDee says:

  February 8, 2009 at 10:35 am

  “Never ending,” that’s not always the case. This is usually what happens more along the coast due to the soapstone under the top layers. If it rains hard enough, the water penetrates to the deeper layer of the soapstone which makes it “slippery” and expands. It’s during the drying out period that the slides occur. A good example of this is BlueBird Canyon. This happened twice that I know about – once the last year or so and back in the late 70′s.

  The burn areas are a different matter. These areas don’t generally have soapstone under the top layers (mainly along the coast). However since there are no roots, trees, plants, etc. to absorb the excess water, then the erosion starts – similar to a snow avalance. If it rains hard enough, it keeps coming and going to the deeper layers thus creating a “river” of debris.

  Let’s pray that the slopes sustain themselves in one piece and spare the canyon residents any more heartache. Also that California catches up on our water supply needs. These rains sure are helping.

  Cheers,

  DeeDee