but there are all sorts of surprises

I think you just summed up all of life.

Wow. Sad state of affairs they are. :(

Thanx for the note!

I've been in that area. The river is far enough away from the sides of the valley that it isn't eroding the slope. In my observational opinion. The river went through flat land, at least several hundred yards away from the valley wall.

Yes, the destruction of trees through harvesting contributes to water runoff. Why do you think flash floods happen in treeless areas like Utah box canyons?

Which is a slippery slope argument (literally!).

Deforestation contributes to landslides and water runoff volume. It is not a magic bullet. Landslides might still occur if the land on top of the cliff hadn't been logged. But they would be less likely. And you would have nice old growth forests.

I think you need a bigger screen. Get a two inch bezel to cover the white space. :)

No, I don't think you have the physics right. Water flowing into the hill from the top down causes the slide. The river is far enough away from the cliff that your scenario doesn't happen.

When the disaster strikes, I can count on my good old Republican corporations to save me, because they will profit. Oh, wait.

Trees reduce the water flows. It's not the anchoring depth of the roots that matters, but the water retained by the large trees.

Trees suck up water that otherwise causes slides.

You're focusing on the wrong variable with surface area. Figure out water flows and how trees smooth those out.

I just friended him (again?) Not used to his posting methods.

Did you the shiny side of tinfoil is a result of burning oil into it at high degree? (What i was told, not what they report.)

5 posts in so short a time. I think that's a record for you!

That reminds me of the The Invisible Gorilla and change blindness. They had a writeup somewhere about a cop who beat up a black officer (killed him?) when chasing another black. He claimed he thought his co-officer was the bad guy. He was convicted. But, the TIG guys wanted to explain it as change blindness as everything the guy said fits in with the theory.

Not saying that is what happened here. But, there might be something similar going on, at least in part.