A section of one of America’s most famous routes – California’s Pacific Coast Highway – has been buried beneath a landslide.
More than a million tonnes of rock and dirt tumbled into the ocean on Saturday, eight miles (12km) north of San Luis Obispo.
The landslide spans about a third of a mile and has heaped up to 40ft of debris on the road.
No injuries or property damage were reported.
Image copyrightJOHN MADONNA CONSTRUCTIONThe California Department of Transportation is working to remove the mountain of rubble from the route, which covers the Big Sur, a major tourist attraction famed for its mountainous coastline.
“Mother Nature hard at work,” the agency wrote on Twitter.
They said they do not know when they will be able to reopen the sealed-off highway.
A Monterey County sheriff’s office spokesperson said on Facebook: “The slide went from bad to worse over the weekend.”
The highway was already closed because of an earlier landslide along the route, the latest of several since January.
