Landslides and Washouts

In the past few years I have bicycled along two highways that are now closed. It's a strange feeling that something I have seen and traveled over is now rubble in the ocean. Highway 1 on the California Pacific coast was closed last year because of multiple landslides. The section of highway south of Monterey, California, wound high on a hillside that, on reflection, probably was not as stable as it felt.

Highway 1 from my 2012 bike trip

It's easy to see how a landslide might be inevitable.

The second is the Kaikoura Coastal Highway, strangely also Highway 1, in New Zealand. The section of road southwest of Kaikoura is near to the water with high, sloped cliffs towering above. The cliffs gave way in an earthquake last year and covered several sections of the road.

Kaikoura: low-lying with high coastal cliffs. From 2014 NZ trip

The town of Kaikoura was completely cut off from the road system for a time after the earthquake. When I first heard about the quake, my biggest worry was for a tsunami. Kaikoura is not far above the high tide mark. They managed to avoid the water attack and just had to deal with the aftermath of sliding hillsides.