(1) Geologically hazardous areas include areas susceptible to erosion, sliding, earthquake, or other geological events. They pose a threat to the health and safety of citizens when incompatible commercial, residential, or industrial development is sited in areas of significant hazard.

(2) Some geological hazards can be reduced or mitigated by engineering, design, or modified construction or mining practices so that risks to public health and safety are minimized. When technology cannot reduce risks to acceptable levels, building in geologically hazardous areas must be avoided. The distinction between avoidance and compensatory mitigation should be considered by counties and cities that do not currently classify geological hazards, as they develop their classification scheme.

(3) Areas that are susceptible to one or more of the following types of hazards shall be classified as a geologically hazardous area:

(a) Erosion hazard;

(b) Landslide hazard;

(c) Seismic hazard; or

(d) Areas subject to other geological events such as coal mine hazards and volcanic hazards including: Mass wasting, debris flows, rock falls, and differential settlement.

(4) Counties and cities should assess the risks and classify geologically hazardous areas as either:

(a) Known or suspected risk;

(b) No known risk; or

(c) Risk unknown - data are not available to determine the presence or absence of risk.

(5) Erosion hazard areas include areas likely to become unstable, such as bluffs, steep slopes, and areas with unconsolidated soils. Erosion hazard areas may also include coastal erosion areas: This information can be found in the Washington state coastal atlas available from the department of ecology. Counties and cities may consult with the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service for data to help identify erosion hazard areas.

(6) Landslide hazard areas include areas subject to landslides based on a combination of geologic, topographic, and hydrologic factors. They include any areas susceptible to landslide because of any combination of bedrock, soil, slope (gradient), slope aspect, structure, hydrology, or other factors, and include, at a minimum, the following:

(a) Areas of historic failures, such as:

(i) Those areas delineated by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service as having a significant limitation for building site development;

(ii) Those coastal areas mapped as class u (unstable), uos (unstable old slides), and urs (unstable recent slides) in the department of ecology Washington coastal atlas; or

(iii) Areas designated as quaternary slumps, earthflows, mudflows, lahars, or landslides on maps published by the United States Geological Survey or Washington department of natural resources.

(b) Areas with all three of the following characteristics:

(i) Slopes steeper than 15 percent;

(ii) Hillsides intersecting geologic contacts with a relatively permeable sediment overlying a relatively impermeable sediment or bedrock; and

(iii) Springs or groundwater seepage.

(c) Areas that have shown movement during the holocene epoch (from 10,000 years ago to the present) or which are underlain or covered by mass wastage debris of this epoch;

(d) Slopes that are parallel or subparallel to planes of weakness (such as bedding planes, joint systems, and fault planes) in subsurface materials;

(e) Slopes having gradients steeper than 80 percent subject to rockfall during seismic shaking;

(f) Areas potentially unstable as a result of rapid stream incision, stream bank erosion, and undercutting by wave action, including stream channel migration zones;

(g) Areas that show evidence of, or are at risk from snow avalanches;

(h) Areas located in a canyon or on an active alluvial fan, presently or potentially subject to inundation by debris flows or catastrophic flooding; and

(i) Any area with a slope of 40 percent or steeper and with a vertical relief of 10 or more feet except areas composed of bedrock. A slope is delineated by establishing its toe and top and measured by averaging the inclination over at least 10 feet of vertical relief.

(7) Seismic hazard areas must include areas subject to severe risk of damage as a result of earthquake induced ground shaking, slope failure, settlement or subsidence, soil liquefaction, surface faulting, or tsunamis. Settlement and soil liquefaction conditions occur in areas underlain by cohesionless soils of low density, typically in association with a shallow groundwater table. One indicator of potential for future earthquake damage is a record of earthquake damage in the past. Ground shaking is the primary cause of earthquake damage in Washington, and ground settlement may occur with shaking. The strength of ground shaking is primarily affected by:

(a) The magnitude of an earthquake;

(b) The distance from the source of an earthquake;

(c) The type or thickness of geologic materials at the surface; and

(d) The type of subsurface geologic structure.

(8) Other geological hazard areas:

(a) Volcanic hazard areas must include areas subject to pyroclastic flows, lava flows, debris avalanche, or inundation by debris flows, lahars, mudflows, or related flooding resulting from volcanic activity.

(b) Mine hazard areas are those areas underlain by, adjacent to, or affected by mine workings such as adits, gangways, tunnels, drifts, or air shafts. Factors which should be considered include: Proximity to development, depth from ground surface to the mine working, and geologic material.