With Australia's Hillsides Stripped Bare By Fire, Scientists Rush To Predict Mudflows
Heavy rains in eastern Australia are causing mudslides and debris flows in areas that burned. Scientists are trying to predict when and where slides are likely to happen.
First came the fires, denuding millions of acres of forest in eastern Australia. Now comes the rain, more than 12 inches in just 48 hours over this past weekend in some areas of New South Wales.
That sequence, severe bushfires followed by torrential rain, is bringing a third cataclysm — landslides and large-scale erosion.
Here's why. Without leafy trees to offer protection, the water falls directly on hard earth. It pools and rolls, gathering into a torrent. If the hill the rain falls on is just the wrong steepness, the soil just the wrong hardness, the downpour just a little too intense... whoosh.
"Essentially it's a
