Lessons in Landslides

Space science can help track what’s happening on Earth. In this podcast episode, 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. Hear from scientists working to investigate this landslide and predict future ones, as well as a woman who witnessed the landslide. 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. Orbital Path is produced by Justin O’Neill and editor Andrea Mustain. Production oversight by John Barth and Genevieve Sponsler. Hosted by Michelle Thaller. Image by Jonathan Godt, courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.