California Division of Mines and Geology

Geologic mapping and El Niño in southern California:

How to get maps describing debris-flows susceptibility

The U.S. Geological Survey's Southern California project is making maps that describe areas prone to possible future damage. The maps are constructed at a scale of 1:100,000 and are suitable for general planning purposes but not for site-specific applications such as determining the hazard for a single building.

The maps show in bright yellow the areas that are prone to possible debris flows. The areas are plotted on a background of shaded relief showing mountains, canyons, and plains. Try an example from Palos Verdes to see what the maps are like and how to interpret them.

This page links to low resolution images of the maps. Click on the name of the 1:100,000 scale quadrangle you want to download (JPG files).

Los Angeles (xx kb)

Santa Barbara (xx kb)

San Bernardino (xx kb)

Santa Ana (129 kb)

Oceanside (xx kb)

San Diego (xx kb)

Big Bear Lake (xx kb)

Long Beach (128 kb)

Palm Springs (xx kb)

Borrego Valley (xx kb)

El Cajon (xx kb)

Get higher resolution files

How the maps are made

For further information, contact David Miller

http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/wgmt/elnino/scampen/smallmaps.html, 05 January 1998, Contact: El Niño Web Team