Case Histories of Maine Landslides

Westbrook - 1868

On November 22, 1868, a massive slide in Westbrook caused an estimated 20 acres of land to collapse and flow into the Presumpscot River. The slide blocked the 200 ft wide river channel for a distance of half a mile, raising the upstream water level at least 15 feet and causing serious flooding.

Rockland - 1973

Figure 2

During the early morning of January 25, 1973, a landslide covering about three acres occurred within tens of feet of two homes on Waldo Avenue in Rockland. There are no known technical reports describing the landslide at the time of the event. However, newspaper accounts and the general descriptions and photographs of the event by geologists who visited the site indicate the slide was similar in size and displacement to the 1996 slide. The Portland Press Herald (February 7, 1973) reported that weather conditions at the time of the 1973 slide were warm temperatures (January "thaw"), and that drainage was "excessive," and that in the opinion of geologists who visited the site, the slide was due in part to these conditions. Photographs of the 1973 slide show that it had the classic features of a retrogressive (headward) landslide, with a steep headscarp and slumped blocks rotated toward the headscarp. Toward the slide toe, the surface of the slumped material appears to have flowed, as though it had bulldozed across the land surface.

Gorham - 1983

Figure 3

On September 28, 1983, a landslide occurred in a bluff of marine sediments at the confluence of the Stroudwater River and Indian Camp Brook in Gorham. Seven acres (3 hectares) of land slid to the south and southwest into the river and the brook, taking with it a house and garage, several vehicles, a tank truck, and a well drilling rig. The total area affected by the slide was about 12 acres (5 hectares). This slide is classified as a complex type, having components of translational slide (blocks move out or down along a planar surface without rotation), a rotational slump (blocks which rotate about an axis parallel to the slope and along a concave-up slip surface), and an earth flow (a fluidized failure lacking distinct blocks). The slide failure plane was calculated to be at a depth of about 42 feet (13 m), within a thick section of Presumpscot clay.

Rockland - 1996

Figure 4

Early in the morning of April 16, 1996, a clay bluff failed on the north shore of Rockland Harbor. This landslide formed a new scarp about 200 feet landward of the original top of the bluff in just a few hours and destroyed two homes. The slide occurred along a steep bluff adjacent to Samoset Road. The bluff top was about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level and the base of the bluff slope ended at the high water mark. Slumping of the bluff occurred progressively in a series of discrete landslide events. When it was over, the slide had moved horizontally over 400 feet (120 m) onto the mudflats of the intertidal zone and had disturbed a total area of 3.5 acres (1.4 hectares). For a month following the major slide event, smaller blocks continued to fall from the steep landward slopes. These continued slope failures resulted in enlargement of the affected area by landward progression of the vertical scarp. By landward retreat, the main scarp moved to within 15 feet (5 m) of a sewer main on the seaward side of Samoset Road. The total cost in terms of lost property value and cost to the city for emergency activities, evaluation of the two homes destroyed and loss of land, clean up, and engineered stabilization was approximately $710,000 and is expected to exceed that when work is completed.

Brunswick - 1997

Figure 5

In late March of 1997, a landslide occurred at the edge of the coastal bluffs of glacial marine deposits in the coastal area in Brunswick, Maine, known as Bunganuc. Following the slide in March, the owner's home measured approximately 100 feet from the edge of the landslide head scarp. The slide is interesting because of how far1from the bluff face some of the blocks slid. "Outrunner" blocks from the slide traveled 183 feet from the base of the bluff.

Wells - 2005

Figure 6

In May of 2005 a landslide occurred in Wells along the banks of the Merriland River. The slide destroyed a portion of a walking trail in the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and removed the backyard of a nearby house. Parts of the house's foundation were left exposed and the house was declared unsafe to inhabit.

Last updated on October 6, 2005