Subject of WWU grad student's thesis work highlighted in National Geographic

The research of Geology master's student Geoffrey Malick is a large, prehistoric landslide complex near Deming that is bigger than the 2014 Oso landslide. His study investigated both the prehistoric events - their timing, magnitude, and potential triggering events - as well as on-going cracking in the source zone that suggests the potential for future slides of equivalent scale. 

The slide deposit has even been highlighted on the Washington DNR’s web page and has now been picked up by National Geographic, below and here. The computer image taken by state geologists from the air, uses technology called LIDAR, which stands for “light detection and ranging,” which works by sending laser light pulses toward a target and measuring the amount of time it takes for those pulses to return.

The image shows the South and North forks of the Nooksack River where they meet at the site of the landslide; the Mount Baker Highway is in the upper left as it curves off towards the northeast.