Ancient landslide deposits along Dosados Creek Canyon, Panoche Hills, Fresno County, California

A cross-sectional profile of an old landslide is exposed along the side of Dosados Canyon in the Panoche Hills in western Fresno County. The original landslide developed on a slope consisting of steeply dipping shale (Moreno Formation of Late Cretaceous age, about 70 million years old). Stained layers are highlighted by salts and iron minerals precipitated by groundwater along fractures and glide planes along the base of the landslide deposits. Note the arc-shape profile of parts of the slump and overlapping tongues sediment within the landslide deposits. The small landslide eventually stabilize, possibly when the stream channel migrated to a new position before carving the modern canyon.

The URL of this page is http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/landslide/big/20.htm