Geologist finds 1901 landslide damage in the Appalachians with LiDAR and a 121 year old map

The extreme rainfall that produces Appalachian floods also produces numerous landslides, but forests recover quickly and the scars from historic slide events are hidden within 30 years or so. In 1901, an extreme storm in Mitchell County, North Carolina, produced a large debris flow landslide sketched and described by W.M. Myers. Using Myers' 121-year-old drawing and text description, I found the scar of this debris flow near the headwaters of Gouges Creek on the Mitchell-Avery County Line. Myers' sketch and writing turned out to be very useful in locating the feature using LiDAR imagery, which shows the bare ground surface below the tree cover. This video compares the drawing to the real scar and shows how I used Google Maps and LiDAR to find it.

[@MyMemphisable]

Brilliant! God bless LiDAR! And Kudos to Myers! These early geologists had so little technology at their disposal, yet they did amazing work. Thanks for presenting this story!

[@stephenmesser4196]

Awesome , I love geologic investigation like this. it's amazing how much more forested the east has become in the last 100 years you would think it would be the opposite.

[@cherylm2C6671]

Thank you so much for your work. After reading about the Johnstown Flood (eighteen eighty-something) use of LIDAR imagery will be tremendously helpful to geologists and developers. It is surprising to see the older slide activity. There is a tremendous amount of information in your presentation. Would someone at your campus be interested in transferring your lidar imagery to 3-D prints? The prints could use 'spiced' greensand or ceramic to position discrete densities in the plot. It might add to what you were explaining with the sand, and I am sure a university could get you funded or working with USGS regarding New Madrid activity. I mentioned your channel on the KZbin GNS Science channel because they had a landslide (and slide dam breach) issue that looked similar.

[@k4x4map46]

nice!!

[@kensmith8832]

On the TN and VA state line (Hawkins Co and Scott Co), the possum knobs are HEL with huge landslides. The size of the slides is hard to imagine. The old timers told stories of it raining for 2 months and then the mountains started to slide. One slide blocked the Possum Creek, when it released the water, the wave was 50 feet tall. There is one slide that looks like a perfect circle.

[@TheGeoModels]

Tell me more about this...do you know what year we're talking about? Definitely interested to know anything you got! I work a lot with this in my "day job."

[@kensmith8832]

@@TheGeoModels How do you want to communicate?

[@TheGeoModels]

@@kensmith8832 there's an email address on this link--scroll down just a bit. Holler at there if you can! Definitely interested in the Possum Knobs stuff, particularly cause there's stories about it. princegeology.com/about-philip-prince/

[@fredholley6248]

Love this stuff! Have you done any work with the slides in Nelson/Amherst counties related to Camille?