NORTH MANKATO, Minn. — Heavier rainfall because of a warming climate is accelerating erosion in many parts of Minnesota, leading to more frequent landslides, mudslides and rockfalls.

And those landslides can cause significant damage to homes, businesses, roads and other infrastructure, and have occasionally turned deadly.

The sandstone bluffs and hillsides of the Minnesota River Valley are especially vulnerable.

On a recent foggy afternoon, North Mankato Public Works Director Luke Arnold drives his city truck down narrow Judson Bottom Road. The road squeezes between the Minnesota River on one side and a towering bluff on the other.

Rock falls are quite common here. Arnold says city staff cleans fallen stone and other debris from the roadway every couple of weeks.

The picturesque roadw

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