What
we’ve learned from the
deadly Washington landslide, 2
years later
On March 22, 2014, a hillside above Oso,
Washington collapsed, unleashing a torrent of mud and debris that buried the community of Steelhead Haven. Forty-three people lost their lives, making it one of the single deadliest landslide disasters in U.S. history.
Over the past two years,
we’ve learned much about the specific geology of the Stillaguamish River Valley where Oso is located, and the weather that preceded this landslide. One study I co-led
identified geologic factors such as weak, saturated ground that made the Oso hillside highly susceptible to landslides. A**ther investigation found that large landslides similar to the one in Oso
occur with surprising frequency in the region*—*on average, every 140 years, just a flash in recent geologic time.
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