Rowan provides some scale as I tried to document the water coming out of the slope cut by the washout of the landslide. It’s a little harder to see the flowing water in the lower photo, but there were several places all along this cut bank where water was streaming out of the rocks/gravel. My guess is that prior to the cutting of this bank by the slide washout, the water just flowed down underground to a point where it reached the stream, perhaps never even visible separately. It’s interesting to think about just how much water is flowing down the mountainsides around here during rainy weather. I also wonder how long it takes for this water to dry up when there hasn’t been rain (and the higher elevation snow above has melted). It’s probably this water that helps get landslides started.
Questions:
- Where are other places that it’s clear water is moving underground?
- How much rock/sediment does the water moving underground like this transport?
- How much slower does the water moving through the ground go as compared to water that is flowing above ground along a channel or watercourse of some sort?