Draper Landslide 2023

 Draper Utah 2023 landslide 

For those who may not know Utah received an exceptional amount of snow this winter. ( I live in Kearns and we got 18 inches overnight, we are in the valley) As a result of the extra, but much-needed water from the snow we have seen a lot of flooding, which as we learned is not good because the ground soaks it up and it is one of the main causes of landslides.

This picture shows what is left of the two homes that slid off the edge of a cliff in Draper, it's kind of cool because you could see the damage from the freeway. Thankfully the families that lived in these homes had enough warning to get out of the house so no one was hurt. 

Video :https://youtu.be/PhBw_dvnt-M?t=1

Article: https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2023/04/25/draper-landslide-1/

FACTS: 

Date: April 22nd, 2023

Location: Salt Lake County, Draper Utah 

Triggers: Spring runoff, it went from 40 to 80 overnight and stayed in the high 70s for several days thus creating the perfect environment for the snow cap to begin melting. They also said that it could have been a man-made landslide because Draper is booming thus there is a rush to get new homes built to keep up with the population. One of the articles I read talked about how the land developers failed to ensure that the land was stable to build houses on due to the land being made of volcanic ash.

During and after the event: During the event, at least two homes slid down the edge of the cliff. After the two homes slid, others that lived close by were evacuated for safety and the area was closed off by the police.

Classification: I  would classify this as either a mudflow, due to the fine-grained soil that was involved, or as an earth flow.  Both require extra water and lose soil. I also would say that this started out as a creep until it had enough momentum to take the entire building down with it .

Mitigation: Personally I would not have bought a house that was built on the edge of a cliff, to begin with, but that's just me. Some of the things that could have been done to prevent this are: they should have done an extensive geological study of the land before they built so they would know if the ground could handle the weight. Second, they should have either waited until after spring runoff to build or ensure that there was a safe place for the water to go away from the homes. I also think that talking to someone about where the flood planes were and about that area could have avoided so headache.