Episode 16: Lessons in Landslides

Space science can help track what's happening on earth. Orbital Path talks landslides and the satellites that monitor them for the third anniversary of the deadliest landslide in US history. On March 22, 2014 a 650-foot hillside collapsed and covered the community of Oso, Washington. Forty-three people died. David Montgomery studied the Oso landslide's remains as part of the 'Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance' (GEER) team that investigated the landslide and tried to pinpoint the causes that lead to the Oso landslide. Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, studies landslides from space using satellites to create various models. Her goal is to develop a model that can be used as the foundation for a global landslide predicting software that can help keep people living in wet, mountainous regions safe from the slides. And Asheley Bryson is the manager at the Darrington Sno-Isles Library, which is just a few miles from the site of the landslide. She shares her memories from that day. Learn more about Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.