THE CATSKILL GEOLOGISTS BY PROFESSORS ROBERT AND JOHANNA TITUS - The Landslide Season, Part Two

CATSKILL - Last time we described some ongoing landslides near Rte. 214, just a little north of Stony Clove. We saw that there have been repeated slides of sometimes massive boulders. They crashed downhill at very rapid speeds, knocking down trees along the way. This is scary and we would like to follow up this week with more about these peculiar geohazards. 

When we were young the word geohazard was hardly ever used. Our science has evolved and so to has its lexicon. The word geohazard is now commonly used. It describes a natural hazard of geological origins. They include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunami, landslides and quite a few other unhappy phenomena. These Rte. 214 landslides are splendid examples. You wouldn’t want to be on that Stony Clove slope when one was happening. Would you? 

But there are other problems. Take a look at our photo. It’s a century old postcard image from our collection, and it is a view of this stretch of Rte. 214, from just north of where these slides are happening. That’s the old railroad line that preceded the building of the highway. On the upper left is the very ledge where we think those boulders are coming from. You probably see the biggest problem. That’s a steep slope and it towers above the highway. It’s a geohazard, a dangerous one. The first question is: will a boulder slide onto Rte. 214 and, if so, will it injure or kill somebody. That’s unlikely, but at least remotely possible. Traffic on the highway is light so it is doubtful that a falling boulder or landslide will actually hit a passing car. Then, and this is more important, we see no evidence that a falling rock has actually reached the road – so far. That’s why we think the odds are good.

The second question is will a landslide be so massive that it will block the entire highway? That’s a definite possibility; it has happened in many other mountainous places; it could happen here. The road would be closed for days or weeks.

The third question is: can the threat be mitigated. We don’t think so. You have probably seen similar hazards along the New York Thruway. There boulders have actually fallen onto the road and hit cars. People have died. Highway engineers have responded by putting up chain link fencing. These hold loose boulders in place and stabilize the slopes. That works along the low slopes of the thruway, but we cannot imagine that approach as being practical, or even possible in Stony Clove.

So, there you have it. We have identified a problem but have not come up with a solution. What would you do? What can anyone do?

Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist. Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”