Dr. Debris

Geology Professor studies the rush of water and rock

HE COULD SEE the devastation from the airport -- a mosaic of apartments and bungalows interspersed with rubble and debris.

In the days to come, geology professor Scott Eaton ('88) would survey this destruction up close. He measured boulders as big as buses, smelled the stench of death and viewed the eerie nothingness of areas wiped clean by landslides.

Eaton, as part of a U.S. Geological Survey team, worked with 10 members of a Venezuelan environmental agency in April and July 2000 to measure and report on the landslide that struck an area of Venezuela near Caracas. Eaton, whom students refer to as "Dr. Debris," was invited by the USGS on both trips because of work he has done in the Blue Ridge Mountains on debris flows, a type of landslide.

But the damage in Venezuela amazed Eaton and the two seasoned USGS team members he traveled with. "We just couldn't get over the amount of destruction and the size of the boulders," Eaton recalls.

Both Venezuelan missions lasted two weeks, and to a certain degree, were dangerous. Eaton's team was once mistaken for looters. "If they found someone looting, they would shoot them on the spot," he says.

The 2000 summer debris flow was triggered when 36 inches of rain fell in three days. Because the mountains rise steeply from sea level to 8,000 feet in just a five-mile area, the flow of earth and water reached speeds of up to 50 miles an hour.

"I saw huge areas on these debris fans and slopes that ere wiped clean," Eaton

says. "There's something very disturbing about walking through an area where there was once a vibrant community, but it has been wiped away by the rush of water and rock."

Many people in the resort area near Caracas had built their homes on old debris fans because those were the only flat areas. The area had also been hit by slides in 1951 and in the 1700s, but then there were fewer people and less development. This time, only about half of the 18,000 people killed were ever found.

"These people have come back and set up on these same kind of fans," he says, "and they've set themselves up for a repeat of history."

Eaton and the USGS team worked in April to survey 12 different stream channels, and in July, they focused on one large debris flow.

Eaton had seen similar destruction during his graduate work in the Blue Ridge Mountains. While studying debris flows, Eaton dug into the earth and found trees from the ice age. During this research, he developed a technique for predicting future flows, the topic of his doctoral dissertation.

Eaton continues to work with the USGS at Black Rock in the Shenandoah National Park and by assisting in mapping surface deposits. This summer, he and USGS geologist Ben Morgan conducted a helicopter survey of the flooding in West Virginia.

Morgan says that Eaton's work with the USGS -- from his graduate school days until now -- has been a "fruitful collaboration. ... Scott has earned his spurs in studying landslides," Morgan says.

Eaton, who began his connection with the university as an undergraduate, says his geologic expeditions help him to better prepare his students.

"The biggest joy of my job is not my research but my students," he says. "What I'm able to learn, I'm able to bring back to the classroom."

Donna Dunn ('94)

Read more about Dr. Debris' Venezuelan adventures in a USGS report <http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/pub/open-file-reports/ofr-01-0144/>