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Science 7 September 1979:
Vol. 205. no. 4410, pp. 997 - 999
DOI: 10.1126/science.205.4410.997
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Articles

Earthquake-Caused Landslides: A Major Disturbance to Tropical Forests

NANCY C. GARWOOD 1, DAVID P. JANOS 2, and NICHOLAS BROKAW 3

1 Department of Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
2 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 2072, Balboa, Canal Zone
3 Department of Biology, University of Chicago

Earthquakes occasionally denude large areas of tropical forest: for example, 54 square kilometers in Panama in 1976 and 130 square kilometers in New Guinea in 1935. Earthquake rates in New Guinea, but not in Panama, are sufficiently high so that substantial areas of disturbed, nonclimax forest may accumulate. In New Guinea, earthquake-caused landslides are as important as tree falls in the disturbance regime.

Submitted on December 4, 1978
Revised on April 26, 1979


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