The Greater Portuguese Bend complex is the biggest active landslide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula — but it is far from the only one. The same seaward-tilted, bentonite-laced Altamira Shale underlies much of the peninsula, and it has produced destructive slides from San Pedro to Rolling Hills for nearly a century. This page tracks them all, so no event gets confused with another.
Each entry below is a distinct landslide or slide area with its own location, history, and status. When news breaks about "a Palos Verdes landslide," start here to identify which one. The Greater Portuguese Bend complex — the subject of the rest of this site — is listed first; the others are separate events on separate ground.
The main event: ~700 active acres within a two-square-mile ancient slide on the peninsula's south flank — the Portuguese Bend (1956–), Abalone Cove (1974–), Klondike Canyon (~1980–), and Beach Club slides. Reaccelerated dramatically in 2023–24; now slowed ~92% by dewatering. The subject of this site's Updates, History, Maps, and Resident Guide.
A sloping, sea-view section of gated Rolling Hills on the ancient complex's eastern flank. It began moving in 1979–80 — at times 5 to 7 feet per year — and destroyed at least a dozen homes through the 1980s. The 2023–24 acceleration reached it again: residents in the Flying Triangle, Cinchring Road, and Quail Ridge Road South areas lost power and gas, and in 2026 Rolling Hills began pursuing its own Cal OES voluntary buyout program modeled on RPV's.
On July 8, 2023, a canyon-edge failure beneath the Peartree Lane neighborhood tore apart 12 homes, which slid toward Agua Amarga Canyon over the following days — evacuations, red tags, and total losses in a neighborhood where residents had raised construction-era concerns decades before. A separate failure from the Portuguese Bend complex, several miles north, and a reminder that canyon rims share the peninsula's weak geology.
Weeks before the Ocean Trails Golf Club opened in June 1999, a ~600-by-220-foot slice carrying most of the 18th hole failed toward the sea on a separate ancient slide lobe, snapping a 27-inch sewer main. The collapse bankrupted the developers; Donald Trump bought the course in 2002 and rebuilt it as Trump National. Full story in History.
The peninsula's original cautionary tale. Beginning with a crack on January 2, 1929, a seaside subdivision at Point Fermin slid toward the ocean — at its peak 11 inches per day, dropping over 7.5 feet in six months and ultimately shifting ~30 feet seaward and 30 feet down by 1941. Homes were demolished or hauled away, the land was bought up, and the fenced ruins — streets, curbs, foundations — remain one of L.A.'s most famous forbidden landscapes.
On November 20, 2011 — after weeks of heavy rain — about 420 feet of Paseo del Mar slid 53 feet toward the ocean near White Point, less than a mile from Sunken City. No one was hurt and no homes were lost, but the coastal road has never been reconnected. Eighty-two years after 1929, the same stretch of coast delivered the same lesson.
Background: Wikipedia · aerial survey imagery.
A ~300–400-foot section of coastal bluff off Marguerite Drive sloughed 50–60 feet toward the shoreline on September 27, 2025 — roughly 4 miles from the Portuguese Bend complex, later assessed as static. Several backyards damaged; no homes threatened. Covered in our Updates and Peninsula FAQ.
Every event above shares the same ingredients: the Altamira Shale's bentonite clay seams, layers tilted toward the sea, coastal bluffs undercut by waves, and — in nearly every case — water as the trigger, whether record rain (2023–24, 2011), irrigation and drainage (long suspected at Peartree Lane and Ocean Trails), or broken pipes. The peninsula's slides differ enormously in size and speed, but not in mechanism.
That shared geology is why the four peninsula cities now plan together: the FEMA-approved Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (2026) covers landslide risk across Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, and Palos Verdes Estates — see Reports & Documents.
Real-estate research, insurance questions, and news reports often conflate the peninsula's slides. The quick test: where is it? The active buyouts, moratorium, and dewatering story belong to the Greater Portuguese Bend complex on RPV's south coast. Peartree Lane is Rolling Hills Estates. Sunken City and White Point are San Pedro (City of Los Angeles). Marguerite Drive is RPV's west side. Each has its own jurisdiction, rules, and history — verify with the City's survey maps for the complex boundary.