Geology and Non-Metallics - Landslide and Flood at Gros Venture, Wyoming (with Discussion)

A great landslide occurred on June 23, 1925, in the valley of Gros Ventre River, about 35 miles south of Yellowstone National Park (Fig. 1). The relations of the north-easterly dipping rock formations of the slide scarp and of the dam formed by the slide are shown in the diagrammatic cross-section of the valley (Fig. 2). This generalized section is based on unpublished maps and notes by Eliot Rlackwelder, in the files of the IT. S. Geological Survey. Heavy rains and melting snow in the Gros Ventre Mountains had saturated clay layers in the Carboniferous strata, which dip toward the valley at angles of 18" to 21°, consequently an enormous mass of rock at the end of the north spur of Sheep Mountain became loosened and, on the afternoon of June 23, slid suddenly down into the valley. Within a few minutes this mass of debris—estimated as 50,000,000 cu. yd.—carrying