Latest news with #Handwerger
USA Today
06-02-2025
- Science
- USA Today
LA coastal area prone to landslides quickly inches into ocean every week, NASA finds
LA coastal area prone to landslides quickly inches into ocean every week, NASA finds A Southern California coastal area long prone to landslides continues to inch toward the ocean at a rising speed posing danger to human life and infrastructure, a new NASA report shows. The Palos Verdes Peninsula, a Los Angeles County area that juts into the Pacific Ocean, shifted around 16 inches toward the ocean during last fall, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Portions of the peninsula are part of an "ancient complex" that have been susceptible to landslides for more than 60 decades. Between Sept. 18 and Oct. 17, NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) captured the area shifting toward the ocean up to 4 inches a week. The area is expanding, largely thanks to the significant heavy rainfall brought by Hurricane Hilary in August 2023 and additional rainfall in early 2024. The motion is also accelerating and impacting hundreds of buildings in local communities, according to the analysis conducted by JPL landslide scientist Alexander Handwerger. "In effect, we're seeing that the footprint of land experiencing significant impacts has expanded, and the speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk," Handwerger said in the NASA report. NASA radar shows shift peninsula shift toward water The lab shared an image created using the UAVSAR and illustrating the landslide direction gearing south into the Pacific Ocean within the four-week period. The UAVSAR radar was used to estimate the landslide's speed and direction across three dimensions. The team planted the instrument onto a jet flown four times out of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Kern County, California. The image uses colors to indicate the landslide speed and direction, with dark red representing the highest velocity per week and light yellow representing the lowest. It also includes arrows showcasting the direction of horizontal motion as well as white solid lines representing the boundaries of the active landslide area defined by the California Geological Survey in 2007. NASA's Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis also used data by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1A/B satellites. The NASA lab has provided the data with California officials addressing landslides as well as the general public online at NASA's Disaster Mapping Portal. What is the Palos Verdes Peninsula? The Palos Verdes Peninsula is a coastal area in Los Angeles County known for popular surfing spots and stunning ocean views in Southern California. The area consists of four cities, including Palos Verdes Estates, Randho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
California coastal community shifts 4 inches closer to the ocean each week: NASA
A coastal community in Southern California is shifting downslope -- and closer to the Pacific Ocean -- at a rapid rate, according to NASA. The Palos Verdes Peninsula is well-known for its landslides, which have been occurring for decades. But radar imagery recently revealed that the Los Angeles County community is experiencing a slow-moving landslide -- averaging about 4 inches per week between Sept. 18 and Oct. 17, 2024, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory found. MORE: Landslides are among the hazards emerging as LA-area wildfires scar terrain The landslide both expanded and accelerated last summer, drawing attention to a populated region that historically had not been moving, Alexander Handwerger, a landslide scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, told ABC News. It can be credited to record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and heavy precipitation in early 2024, according to NASA. But the landslide has recently slowed, Handwerger said, explaining that it was moving faster before recent imagery was collected and has since slightly slowed. Little to no infrastructure was built on the portion that was previously known to be moving, Handwerger said. But the landslide is impacting hundreds of existing buildings. "The speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk," Handwerger said. MORE: California landslide appears to leave 3 multimillion-dollar homes teetering on edge of cliff Some of the peninsula is part of an ancient complex of landslides that has been moving for at least the past six decades, according to NASA. The peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of the city of Los Angeles. Researchers compared airborne radar images taken at four different points of time to measure the motion of the landslides in three dimensions, Handwerger said. "That gave us more of a time series of motion," Handwerger said. MORE: Coastal US cities are sinking as sea levels continue to rise, new research shows The region has been a big focus for scientific research due to the prominent landslide threat. NASA's upcoming Landslide Climate Change Experiment will use airborne radar to study how extreme wet or dry precipitation patterns influence landslides. In addition to airborne radar, scientists have been using satellite data to monitor the motion of the landslide. Such analyses are provided to state officials to support response efforts to the landslides. MORE: These neighborhoods in New York City are sinking the fastest, according to a new study The threat of landslides is so persistent that the City of Rancho Palos Verdes manages a website that releases monitoring data for potential activity in the region. California coastal community shifts 4 inches closer to the ocean each week: NASA originally appeared on
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
California coastal community shifts 4 inches closer to the ocean each week: NASA
A coastal community in Southern California is shifting downslope -- and closer to the Pacific Ocean -- at a rapid rate, according to NASA. The Palos Verdes Peninsula is well-known for its landslides, which have been occurring for decades. But radar imagery recently revealed that the Los Angeles County community is experiencing a slow-moving landslide -- averaging about 4 inches per week between Sept. 18 and Oct. 17, 2024, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory found. MORE: Landslides are among the hazards emerging as LA-area wildfires scar terrain The landslide both expanded and accelerated last summer, drawing attention to a populated region that historically had not been moving, Alexander Handwerger, a landslide scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, told ABC News. It can be credited to record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and heavy precipitation in early 2024, according to NASA. But the landslide has recently slowed, Handwerger said, explaining that it was moving faster before recent imagery was collected and has since slightly slowed. Little to no infrastructure was built on the portion that was previously known to be moving, Handwerger said. But the landslide is impacting hundreds of existing buildings. "The speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk," Handwerger said. MORE: California landslide appears to leave 3 multimillion-dollar homes teetering on edge of cliff Some of the peninsula is part of an ancient complex of landslides that has been moving for at least the past six decades, according to NASA. The peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of the city of Los Angeles. Researchers compared airborne radar images taken at four different points of time to measure the motion of the landslides in three dimensions, Handwerger said. "That gave us more of a time series of motion," Handwerger said. MORE: Coastal US cities are sinking as sea levels continue to rise, new research shows The region has been a big focus for scientific research due to the prominent landslide threat. NASA's upcoming Landslide Climate Change Experiment will use airborne radar to study how extreme wet or dry precipitation patterns influence landslides. In addition to airborne radar, scientists have been using satellite data to monitor the motion of the landslide. Such analyses are provided to state officials to support response efforts to the landslides. MORE: These neighborhoods in New York City are sinking the fastest, according to a new study The threat of landslides is so persistent that the City of Rancho Palos Verdes manages a website that releases monitoring data for potential activity in the region. California coastal community shifts 4 inches closer to the ocean each week: NASA originally appeared on
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
LA Coast Community Accelerates Towards Pacific Amid Increasing Landslides
As if Los Angeles doesn't have enough to contend with in the aftermath of its catastrophic fires, NASA is now warning slow landslides are accelerating to threaten hundreds of buildings on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. While the threat hopefully isn't immediate, such unstable land can suddenly collapse, as with the Mud Creek landslide in 2017, so researchers are trying to better understand the warning signs. This region on the Palos Verdes Peninsula has been slowly slipping towards the ocean for decades, but new radar data from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP) has found the rate of this ocean-bound slide has increased. The area of land on the move has also expanded substantially since California's Geological Survey mapped out the at-risk boundaries in 2007, now encompassing many more buildings. "We're seeing that the footprint of land experiencing significant impacts has expanded, and the speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk," JLP's geoscientist Alexander Handwerger warns. Radar measures and data from the European Space Agency's Copernicus satellite indicate that during Autumn of 2024 residential land was moving as much as 10 centimeters (4 inches) per week towards the Pacific Ocean. This increase in motion followed record-breaking rainfall in 2023 along with further heavy downpours in early 2024. "The large majority of landslides around the world are triggered by intense or prolonged rainfall," NASA physical scientist Dalia Kirschbaum explains on YouTube. Just as they have worsened fire conditions, warming global temperatures have also increased these extra strong deluges of rain, making landslides yet another threat exacerbated by human-caused climate change. As the atmosphere warms, its capacity to hold water increases, leading to more extreme rain events as well as more severe dryness when it's not raining. This dramatic speed-up of the water cycle is creating a phenomenon called hydroclimate whiplash where conditions jerk rapidly from extremely wet to extremely dry and back again. In 2022, Handwerger and colleagues were surprised to discover that landslides move faster during rainy seasons than dry seasons, regardless of whether the soil is dry or already wet. Handwerger plans to continue investigating these risks by studying how hydroclimate whiplash will influence the earth's movement. A better understanding of these interactions could inform monitoring networks that provide alerts to state officials and communities. Third of Earth's Landmass Could Soon Be Too Hot For Over 60s World's Largest Iceberg Breaking Up as Enormous Chunk Falls Off The Arctic's 'Last Ice Area' May Vanish Even Faster Than Predicted
