In May 2005, a landslide changed the face of the Rachel Carson Trail near Outlook 1, permanently altering both the landscape and the surrounding ecosystem. The slide resulted from four factors affecting the banks of the Merriland River: a winding river channel, unconsolidated sediments, a high groundwater table, and a fault. Over many years, the river's current along the outside edge of the channel steadily removed sediment from the base of the cliff. The steep, unstable riverbank cliffs were made of heavy sediments rather than bedrock, including a sand layer over a deeper marine clay layer with little cohesion. During the record wet spring of 2005, high water tables kept sediment pore spaces saturated, weakening the bond between particles, while pressure from rainfall forced the soil apart and increased instability. Together these conditions caused movement along a plane of failure, opening additional cracks in a domino effect. Underlying clay then extruded sideways into the river, while sand, soil, and trees dropped straight down, in some places settling 20 feet below the original bluff. Evidence of this and earlier landslides appears farther along the trail, where trees lean toward the bluff and grow on a ledge below trail level. The river and marsh may yet be reshaped by the damming effect of the slide, as the tidal river dredges new channels and continues seeking the path of least resistance to the ocean.