A Recent Rockslide near Durango, in La Plata County, Colorado
Abstract
Contrary to the somewhat sensational accounts in the public press, the rockslide on Carbon Mountain does not exhibit any unusual features. The slide involves the lower 100-125 feet of the Fruitland formation, of Upper Cretaceous age, which consists largely of shale and lies immediately above the Pictured Cliffs sandstone. The mass involved is about 1,800 feet long, 600 feet wide, and 100 feet deep and has moved about 700 feet obliquely down the back slope of a hogback of Pictured Cliffs sandstone, which dips about 21° SE. The slope along the direction of the major movement has a gradient of only 40 per cent. The mass moved slowly, the maximum recorded rate being about 30-45 feet a day.
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