SAN DIEGO — There’s growing concern about a landslide located directly behind homes off Clairemont Drive.
Neighbors said it happened earlier this week in the canyon, and is the second one in just the past year.
“I was worried about future erosion, but you brought to my attention that it does look like there's been something going on,” said Christian Best.
CBS 8 informed Best and his roommates about the small landslide behind their fence.
“It does help that you guys have come out here and now I know somebody's looking into it. It gives a little bit piece of mind,” said Best.
CBS 8 found out about the landslide on the website Nextdoor. A woman posted two pictures, which appear to have been taken from the other side of the canyon.
One showed a landslide directly behind Best's ADU, which she wrote happened last year right after it was built. The other shows a newer landslide just a few doors down.
CBS 8 went to their home as well to let them know.
We also reached out to geologist Pat Abbott to get his thoughts.
"It's always something to be concerned about. But in this particular case, they happen to be sitting on a conglomerate, a bouldery, cobbly, relatively strong landmass. So in that particular case, the kinds of slides you're going to get here, just small ones, you're not going to have a great big one that takes down a whole house," said Abbott.
Abbott said one contributing factor as to why the land may have given way here are the ice plants, which are heavier than other vegetation.
Another, more obvious one, is the amount of rain we've received this year, which has led to landslides not only in San Diego, but throughout California.
"Every slope is basically an equilibrium situation. It's ready to fail. All it really needs is something to give it that little push. And here with continued heavy rains, there's that push, there's that added weight that allows gravity to do more. So not only would I expect to see more of these events, but it's not just associated with the rain, the rain soaks into the ground. So it's deep seated failures, it could still be failing underground here for weeks or months after the rain stops," said Abbott.
Abbott told CBS 8 that landslides are often hard to prevent and or predict.
Regarding this latest one, CBS8 reached out to the City of San Diego to report it.
A spokesperson said,
"The city is researching the property ownership and will send out an inspector next week as this appears to be a minor superficial slide."
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