WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Analysis of data from NASA radar aboard an airplane shows that the decades-old active landslide area on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles has expanded.
Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used data from an airborne radar to measure the movement of the slow-moving landslides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County. The analysis found that during a four-week period in the fall of 2024, land in the residential area slid toward the ocean by as much as 4 inches per week.
Portions of the peninsula, which juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of the city of Los Angeles, are part of an ancient complex of landslides and has been moving for at least the past six decades, affecting hundreds of buildings in local communities. The motion accelerated, and the active area expanded following record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and heavy precipitation in early 2024.
NASA's Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis team created a visualization using data from four flights of its Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) between September 18 and October 17.
'In effect, we're seeing that the footprint of land experiencing significant impacts has expanded, and the speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk,' said Alexander Handwerger, the JPL landslide scientist who performed the analysis.
The insights from the UAVSAR flights were provided to California officials to support the state's response to the landslides and made available to the public at NASA's Disaster Mapping Portal.
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