After an overview of the most recent results of static high-pressure and high-temperature experiments, we present a review of the mineralogy of shocked meteorites. The high-pressure minerals in these rocks result either from solid-state reactions or from the crystallization of melts at high pressures. Comparisons of naturally shocked samples with samples processed in dynamic experiments must be made with extreme caution. The durations of the equilibrium shock pressure experienced by meteorites can vary over at least three orders of magnitude (10 −2 s to 10 s), and they lie within the lower range of the duration of static experiments conducted in diamond anvil cells or multianvil apparatus. We emphasize that dynamic experiments up to 130 GPa have never produced any reconstructive solid-state phase transition or liquidus high-pressure minerals that offer a reliable calibration of the continuum of shock pressures and temperatures. The solid-state transformations observed in shocked meteorites are in many cases incomplete and provide only insights into the initial stages of high-pressure phase transitions, crystallization, and chemical interdiffusion. In contrast, the natural high-pressure species crystallized from silicate liquids at high pressures and temperatures provide more precise information on the pressures and temperatures reached during a shock event on the parental asteroid. The kinetics of phase transitions and diffusion of trace elements permit meaningful estimates of the pressure, temperature, and shock durations. We also present information on new dense minerals (C and TiO 2 ) in terrestrial shocked rocks in impact craters and discuss their relevance to a reliable estimate of pressure and temperature conditions.

Abstract Unpublished reports of investigations carried out after the 1983 Sale Mountain landslide and some of the published papers related to the occurrence, mechanism, and mobility of the landslide are reviewed herein. The landslide occurred on the high, steep south slope of Sale Mountain, which comprises nearly horizontal Pliocene siltstones and mudstones covered by 120 m of Pleistocene eolian loess. The volume of loess involved in the slide was less than one-third of the total volume of the sliding mass, so it is was not a loess landslide, but a loess-covered mudstone landslide. Although the landslide occurred suddenly, before its occurrence there was a long-term preparatory stage, in which gravitational creep and tension fracturing were important processes leading to the final abrupt failure of the slope. Most researchers have suggested that the mechanism of the landslide was progressive failure that began with extremely slow sliding and tension fracturing, and ended with shearing through resisting elements across the bedding of the Pliocene sediments. The sliding velocity of the landslide was extremely rapid. The average velocity was ~20 m/s. The Fahrböschung is 11°, which represents an excessive travel distance of 1120 m.