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Tectonic geomorphology

The hills came tumbling down

Large earthquakes can build mountains, but they can also trigger landslides that wear landscapes away. An analysis from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake shows that landslides destroyed more topography than was created by uplift.

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Figure 1: Landslides associated with the Wenchuan earthquake.

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Correspondence to William B. Ouimet.

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Ouimet, W. The hills came tumbling down. Nature Geosci 4, 424–425 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1199

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