Massive Big Sur landslide added 13 acres to coast

A massive landslide that engulfed Central California’s Highway 1 has added 13 acres to the coastline.

The East Bay Times (http://bayareane.ws/2rlRRJq ) says the May 20 slide in Big Sur created a bulge of land the size of 10 football fields.

The addition is visible in aerial photographs taken a week after a million tons of rock and earth slid down a coastal slope saturated from winter storms.

The slide covered a quarter-mile of Highway 1 with up to 80 feet of dirt.

State highway officials say it may take millions of dollars and more than a year to repair the route.

As for the extra coastline, it won’t last.

Gary Griggs, a professor of earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz, says erosion will eventually eat it away.

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