6 Applied Geological Investigations at State Geological Surveys in the Northeastern Section of GSA (Posters)

This technical session will highlight the high-level, applied work done by state geological surveys to address diverse environmental issues including geologic hazards, groundwater and surface water, and economic mineral deposits in the Northeast Section region.

Sunday, 22 March 2026
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
CCC, Ballroom C

Unglued: New County Scale Landslide Potential Mapping in Eastern New York to address The Pleistocene Legacy and Climate Change Future of New York States Landscape.

Paper number: 6-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

New field mapping and subsurface investigations by the New York State Geological Survey support previous suggestions that New York State was glaciated multiple times during the Pleistocene. If the climate record preserved in the Greenland Ice Cores and in benthic organisms from marine deposits are comparable, New York State may have experienced as many as 20 glaciations. The erosion and deposition of repeated continental glaciers profoundly impacted the landscape of New York State. Numerous large valley systems encouraged the direction of ice flow during glacial periods until ice sheets thickened and overrode the landscape. Expansive proglacial lakes developed before, during and after glaciation as meltwater became impounded by isostatic depression or ice-dams.

In Albany County fine-grained sediments deposited in glacial Lake Albany are extensive and exceeds 122 meters in thickness. Laminated and rhythmic bedded silt-clay deposits typically have low shear strengths and are commonly prone to failure. At the end of the last glaciation as glaciers retreated and lake phases drained, changes in base level resulted in the initiation of modern stream systems. Incision of streams responding to new base levels at onset of Holocene driven by meteoric waters likely triggered a period of active mass-wasting and landslide activity. However, that landscape eventually established a new equilibrium with Holocene climate and stream systems and hillsides stabilized.

Yet, the past few decades provide clues that perhaps a new climate-equilibrium is underway. More frequent and intense precipitation events strongly suggest that change from a warming climate will result in new landscape adjustments in the coming decades including increased landslides and slope-failures. As a result, the New York State Geological Survey has developed a new landslide potential map that may be utilized by professional geologists, engineers and planners.

The stabilized landscape of the Holocene that society has built over will continue to adjust, creating extensive challenges to communities and infrastructure. Geologic maps and professional geologists will play an essential role to identify hazard prone areas, educate the public, mitigate slope-failures, and help engineer solutions to a landscape that readjusts to a new climate reality.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 2

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026NE-411437

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