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One Of World’s Greatest Roads Blocked By Huge Landslide

It’s a surreal scene that looks almost like it was ripped straight out of a Hollywood disaster movie (probably starring someone like John Cusack).

New drone footage shows an incredible sight of millions of tons of rock and dirt blocking a section of Highway 1 just south of Big Sur. The slide is estimated to be five football fields wide and extends 250 feet into the Pacific Ocean, effectively changing the coastline and adding 15 acres to the coastline.

This is the third landslide in the region this year, with this latest one featuring more than 1 million tons of rock and dirt in an area called Mud Creek and covering approximately a quarter-mile stretch of Highway 1. Sensors in the mountains near the area had picked up increased ground movement just a week earlier at a site 10 miles north of Ragged Point.

Two previous landslides and floods have also occurred in the area further to the north, taking out more highways and bridges. The damaged has forced campgrounds and resorts to shut down, with some areas using helicopters to fly guests and supplies in and out.

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times

Caltrans says that they cannot begin clearing the landslide or repair the road until the earth stabilizes and it is safe for workers to return. At the moment, the slide is still extremely unstable and still on the move.

The area where Mud Creek resides is known as the Santa Lucia Mountains, stretching from Cambria to Carmel ( approximately 150 miles of coastline). The mountains are notorious for being vulnerable to landslides due to standing over the Farallon Plate and the North American Plate, making it very difficult to hold up a steep slope.

Tony Hsieh

Cars, the Buffalo Bills, video games, comics, sandwiches, jelly beans, and the shooting star press; these are the things that Tony loves (in addition to his family, of course). When he's not spending his time writing tech reviews for theslanted.com, Tony puts his lifetime love of muscle cars to use on his 2015 Mustang GT. Tony's top three favorite cars are the 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Ferrari 458, and Aston Martin DBS.

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