Thursday, March 28, 2013

Ledgewood Slide on Whidbey Island

I heard about the landslide on Whidbey Island via the national news late in the day. I was fairly certain that the slide was at Ledgewood based on the news descriptions of the size and that there were homes on the slide. When I got to the motel, I found Hugh Shipman had paid the site a visit to Ledgewood: gravelbeach.blogspot.com/2013/03/ledgewood-beach.

There are a fair number of homes on this landslide complex. Some of the coherent slide blocks made appealing looking benches for home sites and road routes. These types of slides tend to take place after particularly wet winters, although other factors play a roles as well. Besides being a wet winter there has been a fair bit of shore line erosion events this winter as well.

I have only been to the Ledgewood slide once and that was to access another shoreline bluff which fortunately had different geology.

This is the second deep-seated slide movement I know of thus far this late winter and early spring within the Salish Sea shorelines. Another deep-seated slide has had movement this winter at the southeast tip of the Bolton Peninsula at Dabob Bay. I might have to do a few side trips to check out a few others over the next month or so.   

2 comments:

B and G said...

Dan,If your in the Coupeville area swing by the corner of Front and Clapp streets and have a look at our (impending) mini-slide. A part of the high bank, maybe 50 feet long by 10 feet wide is subsiding, threatening one lane of front street. Pretty small in comparison but still kind of a big deal for Coupeville.
Thank you for the Blog! It is just a treasure trove of information, just what I've been looking for.
Doug Hoyer.



Dan McShane said...

Thanks Doug. I have been meaning to take a look at the slide in Coupeville. And I hope to pay a visit to Ledgewood soon as well.