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By Dr. Cheryl Hapke

Along the Big Sur coastline in central California where weak rocks and steep topography provide ideal conditions for frequent large landslides that potentially contribute a substantial portion of material to the littoral sediment budget. Little was known about the sediment budget in this area, including the amount, rate and frequency of sediment input to the system from coastal landslides. Adjacent to the Big Sur coastline is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) needed solutions to the difficulties they face with keeping slide-prone coastal Highway 1 open and safe while minimizing impacts to the MBNMS below the road. As a contribution to developing a highway management plan, and in order to advance the fundamental understanding of landslide and coastal processes along this stretch of coastline, an approach was developed to quantify the historical volume of sediment that enters the littoral system from coastal slope failures. This presentation will tell the story of landslides, coastal processes, highway management and natural resource protection and the science that ties them together.