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.
(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
