Montecito mudslides damage (IMAGE) University of Pennsylvania Caption During the 2018 Montecito mudslides, powerful flows of debris pushed boulders out of creek-carved canyons toward homes, causing destruction and 23 deaths. New findings from a Penn-led team leveraged recent developments in physics to understand the forces that governed the mudslides. Credit Douglas Jerolmack Usage Restrictions in context of reporting License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.