DOI: 10.5066/p9bo8qlz
title: Map data from landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in an area of Corozal, Puerto Rico

description: In late September 2017, Hurricane Maria brought intense precipitation and extensive landsliding across Puerto Rico. Several landslide inventories have been completed for areas within the Puerto Rico archipelago following the hurricane. These inventories include Bessette-Kirton et al. (2017, 2019), Baxstrom (2021a, 2021b), and Einbund (2021a, 2021b). Here, we expand on this previous work with detailed landslide mapping in a severely landslide-affected area (4 sq km) within the Corozal municipality in the north central part of the main island. To map landslide source and runout areas, we used 0.15 resolution aerial imagery collected after Hurricane Maria between 9-15 October 2017 (Quantum Spatial, Inc., 2017), and 1-m-resolution lidar digital elevation models (DEM) collected before and after the hurricane (U.S. Geological Survey, 2018, 2020). In addition to visually identifying landslide-affected areas using aerial imagery, we differenced pre- and post-event lidar DEMs to constrain areas where volume loss and volume gain indicated the boundaries of landslide source and deposition areas, respectively. Lidar data further helped resolve mappping issues where aerial imagery was not correctly orthorectified, where cloud cover obstructed visibility in all available images within an area, and where in interpreting landslide failure modes using only two-dimensional aerial photography was difficult.
This data release includes four separate Geographic Information System (GIS) shapefiles representing mapped landslide components: 1) The most uphill points along the trace of each landslide headscarp of the source areas (Crzl_Headscarp.shp), 2) polylines illustrating material travel paths from the headscarp to the furthest point along the runout path (Crzl_Lines.shp), 3) polygons representing landslide source or initiation areas (Crzl_Source.shp), and 4) polygons delineating total affected area consisting of source, transport, and deposition zones (Crzl_Affected.shp). Throughout this area of the Corozal municipality, we mapped a total of 600 landslide source areas and headscarps. Characteristics of the landslides and their geomorphic settings are included in the attribute tables of the mapped features, and are further described in the "Attribute Summary" document in the accompanying files. Quantitative attributes (e.g., failure travel distance, failure fall height, watershed contributing area, etc.) were determined using tools available with ESRI ArcGIS Pro v. 3.0.36056 GIS software.
Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
References
Baxstrom, K.W., Einbund, M.M., Schulz, W.H., 2021a, Map data from landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in the greater karst region of northwest Puerto Rico Summary (ver. 1.1, April 2022): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9YYU7W1.
Baxstrom, K.W., Einbund, M.M., Schulz, W.H., 2021b, Map data from landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in a section of Naranjito, Puerto Rico: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9GBGA4I.
Bessette-Kirton, E.K., Cerovski-Darrian, C., Schulz, W.H., Coe, J.A., Kean, J.W., Godt, J.W., Thomas, M.A. and Hughes, K.S., 2019, Landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria: Assessment of an extreme event in Puerto Rico: GSA Today, v. 29, no. 6. https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG383A.1
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Einbund, M.M., Baxstrom, K.S., and Schulz, W.H., 2021a, Map data from landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in four study areas in the Lares Municipality, Puerto Rico: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EASZZ7.
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