J. Michael O’Neill Paul E. Carrara 2010 <p><span>Because many tree species can live for several centuries or longer (Brown 1996), tree-ring analysis can be a valuable tool to date geomorphic events such as landslides, earthquakes, and avalanches in regions lacking long historical records. Typically, a catastrophic landslide will destroy all trees on the landslide, but trees on slower moving landslides may survive. For example, the Slumgullion earthflow, in southwestern Colorado, moves 0.5–5.5 m annually, yet is covered by aspen (</span><i class="EmphasisTypeItalic ">Populus tremuloides</i><span>) and conifers (Baum and Fleming 1996). Trees that survive such movements undoubtedly suffer damage, such as topping, tilting, impact, or root breakage. This damage is commonly recorded in the tree-ring record and analysis of this record can be used to reconstruct past landslide activity.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1007/978-90-481-8736-2_39 en Springer Tree-ring dated landslide movements and seismic events in southwestern Montana, USA chapter