Articles | Volume 7, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-879-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-879-2019
Research article
 | 
20 Sep 2019
Research article |  | 20 Sep 2019

River channel width controls blocking by slow-moving landslides in California's Franciscan mélange

Noah J. Finnegan, Kiara N. Broudy, Alexander L. Nereson, Joshua J. Roering, Alexander L. Handwerger, and Georgina Bennett

Data sets

Long Profiles and Valley Width Data for Arroyo Hondo, Alameda Creek, and the Eel River N. Finnegan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3403345

Earthflow-Derived Boulder Size Distributions for Arroyo Hondo and the Eel River N. Finnegan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3403338

Annual Earthflow Displacement N. Finnegan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3403350

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Short summary
In some settings, landslides trigger valley blockages that impound huge volumes of sediment, often drastically changing river habitat and habitability. In other settings, landslides appear to have little effect on rivers. In this study, we explore what governs the different sensitivity of rivers to blocking from landslide debris. We accomplish this by comparing two sites in California with dramatic differences in blocking from otherwise similar slow-moving landslides.