Arizona is a land of natural beauty. In a day’s travel from southwestern to north-central Arizona you would climb from near sea-level to a height of 12,666 feet. In your journey you would encounter river valleys and lush riparian zones, washes, hills, mountains, alluvial fans, escarpments, canyons, buttes, mesas, plateaus and even young volcanoes. Paradoxically, the physiographic features that make Arizona such a beautiful and captivating land are prone to geologic hazards: geologic conditions or phenomena that endangers life, property, infrastructure and livestock.

Geologic hazards occur in terrains ranging from the flattest valley floor to the most precipitous mountain slope. In Arizona some of the more common hazards include: landslides, debris flows, rock fall, creep, earthquakes, floods and flash floods, earth fissures, expanding or shrinking soils, radon gas emission, and less commonly, geomagnetic storms and volcanic activity. See our Geologic Hazard Glossary for a brief description of the terms encountered here. Fortunately, wise land use policy, hazard mapping and analysis, and aggressive mitigation can go a long way to minimize the impact of geologic hazards on human society.

This section of the AZGS website is dedicated to exploring the nature, distribution, and dangers of geologic hazards common to Arizona. Follow the links to learn more about a particular hazard. Each page provides a description of the causes and potential impact of a geologic hazard; a distribution map; some representative images; a brief discussion on minimizing risk and thus mitigate the hazard; and some useful links to other hazard pages.