Fires and Landslides

Not long ago, the mountains of California were on fire. This week, they're sending mudslides down on the villagers. Those two things are not always just a coincidence, because fires strip the ground of the shrubbery, duff and undergrowth that protect the soil from rain and runoff. Unprotected, those soils wash away when rains do come. It's all part of the great cycle, but that is scant comfort for anyone close to the mud or, in the case of Independence, California, anyone trying to drive US route 395 through town. In any case, the link of fire to flood is illustrated in the Landslides Gallery.
_{Geology Guide photo}