AZGS released a report today on the March 21, 2008 landslide that closed the Phoenix-Payson highway (SR-87) for six days. AZGS geologists Mimi Diaz, Brian Gootee, and Ann Youberg did reconnaissance mapping immediately after the event to support the AZ Dept. of Transportation's efforts to re-open the road and mitigate the slide.
They found evidence for at least four paleo-landslides in the hills above the highway. The March slide appears to be a reactivated portion of a tongue of the one slide that was previously mapped.
The AZGS report was delivered to ADOT on Friday, although the results had been shared between the two agencies in real time since the slide occurred.