"82-acre piece of earth on the eastern slope of Little Porter is still slipping"

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
This is absolutely amazing. The geologists must love it as much as the landowners hate it.

Not being familiar with the area ... could the development have been the reason for the slide?

I was also perturbed by the statement that what they learned from this event would be useful in further development within the Adirondack Park.
 
MichaelJ said:
I was also perturbed by the statement that what they learned from this event would be useful in further development within the Adirondack Park.
Click to expand...
I would think that this would mean there would be restrictions on where houses should be built... Sounds like a good thing to me...
 
I'm not a soil scientist or a Civ E, but I don't think the development was part of the cause. These roads and houses have been there or about 30 years, and this is generally low angled terrain. (This is not the "ridge top development" that everybody loves to hate.) I think the record snowpack, followed by record April rain just saturated this glacial soil beyond what it could hold. (The Adirondacks did have record water this year. The Hudson at Glens Falls reached 50,000 cfs, which is an all time record in the century that data has beeen gathered.) This has been an unusual year, and there are washouts all over the place, new slides, etc. in the Adirondacks.

It does suck for the couple people whose houses are affected, and I'm not sure whether insurance covers this sort of thing. I hope it stabilizes soon!
 
MichaelJ said:
This is absolutely amazing. The geologists must love it as much as the landowners hate it.

Not being familiar with the area ... could the development have been the reason for the slide?

I was also perturbed by the statement that what they learned from this event would be useful in further development within the Adirondack Park.
Click to expand...

Really!
The removal of the trees in the past certainly could have lead to less consolidated soils in the years following. When the roots die, the soil isn't held together anymore, right?

With the addition of heavy snowmelt over the years, the slide could have developed. Cool stuff. Definately something to think about.

Another good reason to leave the trees alone. ;)
 
TCD said:
It does suck for the couple people whose houses are affected, and I'm not sure whether insurance covers this sort of thing. I hope it stabilizes soon!
Click to expand...

I've had "Earth Movement" added to policies, which the agent has never recommended (and looked askance at me for requesting), but was so cheap it was just easier to get. At the time I was trying to protect against foundation damage from tremors/earthquakes/sink holes, etc.

:confused: What ? You're looking askance at me, aren't you ? Anyway, like I said, DIRT cheap to add.

I bet that would cover this damage and doubt it's covered otherwise.
 
While section hiking the AT down in Eastern Tennesee and western NC, I saw a lot of summer houses perched on benches cut into steep mountainsides. Several locals commented that given a few years, the homes up ont he hill sides would all end up in the valley. A few years later we down there finishing up the AT a few days after Hurricane Ivan hit. I saw more than a few of these million dollar homes that has made a big start in moving into the valley after the Hurricane. The entire area used to be well known for rain induced mudslides after the hillsides were clear cut. The forest service bought most of the land but there were inholdings. We didnt see any significant slides on the forest service lands but saw several in the inholdings

I expect development probably doesnt help where marginal soils exist.
 
I'm glad my place in Keene is poured directly on bedrock. But I might still look into earthquake protection, if it's cheap, as Chip says. If there were a significant earthquake, my house would be "directly coupled" to the ground movement...
 
The ADK's are in what's called a moderate earthquake zone. Right in the middle between places like San Fran which is a high zone and low quake probability like the deep south.
A small percentage of homeowners policy buyers ask for quake coverage and the deductible in case of an event is high. But should an EQ happen in your locale, your home can be destroyed or the local building dept can declare the home uninhabitable if it's been shaken off its foundation. Even the broadest homeowner policy won't provide coverage.

For an additional premium that is a small percentage of your homeowners premium, you're protected. It won't cover dollar one, but even after a steep deductible, you'll be made whole. Living in the ADKs or close by, small EQs are not infrequent and if you have much of your financial equity tied up in your home, it's worth thinking about.
 
One of the affected houses is now in the process of being moved to another location on the homeowner's lot. They hope to anchor to bedrock.

There are lots of trees in the area; it has not been clear-cut like many urban subdivisions.
 
We visited the landslide site near Tully for a Friends of the Pleistocene field trip a few years ago. Underlying geological conditions included various sediments overlying shrinking and swelling impermeable glacial lake clays, with the earthflows triggered by prolonged precipitation and antecedcent ground moisture. Here is a link:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1994/ofr-94-0615/tvstudy.htm
 
For reference, what was the acreage of the landslide on Mount Colden caused by Hurricane Floyd? I think at the time it was said to be 2500 feet long, but I don’t know how wide.

Also, I remember when my ladyfriend, Susan, and I climbed Porter Mountain the first time, in 1998, the trail brought us right up by someone’s house on Little Porter. Would that have been one of these affected houses, or was that house on a different road?
 
The SE slide on Mt Colden rises about 1200 feet, with a length of about 3700 ft (0.7 mile), estimated from NG TOPO! Its width is variable and area would be difficult to estimate.

The Porter houses near the trail you refer to are much higher on the mountain (about 2100 ft) than the affected ones at about 1500 ft, which are 0.5-0.8 mile from the bridge crossing Johns Brook.
 
Assuming the SE slide is 200' wide, an extremely rough estimate of its area would be 20 acres. Even if that's off by a factor of 2, it's still smaller than the 82 acre "slow slide."

BTW, the SE slide pre-dates Hurricane Floyd. Older slides had been in that location for many years; the modern SE slide, also known as the Lake Arnold slide, slid in 1990. Hurricane Floyd was in 1999. The slide that Floyd brought down from Colden is the "Avalanche Pass" slide, the prominent, trapezoidal slide that is so visible from Marcy Dam. (This slide is much smaller in area than the 1990 slide.)

It should be borne in mind that while all these are "landslides," the 82 acre Porter "slow slide" is a completely different kind of event from the catastrophic slides on the steeper slopes.

It's fascinating to live in a dynamic landscape. I hope the affected folks area able to recover their value.
 
TCD said:
It's fascinating to live in a dynamic landscape. .
Click to expand...

True, in relation to what we're used to. A little "wider lense", like even 100,000 years, and it's amazing and lucky for us (as a species) how stable the earth and atmosphere have been.

TCD said:
I hope the affected folks area able to recover their value.
Click to expand...

I'm no insurance expert, iz no my yob, but a homeowners policy, even with full replacement, assumes you can rebuild on the same lot, maybe even the same foundation.
 
And they are still working up there with heavy machinery? (moving the house):eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Top