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We use magnitude–frequency analysis as a statistical tool to quantify the erosion caused by landslides and debris flows. Using air-photo- and ground-derived data we show that the departure from power-law distribution customarily observed for small magnitude is an artefact of sampling deficiencies. Nonetheless, the total distribution is not sensitive to the frequency of small slides and total erosion remains adequately represented in the air-photo-derived data. Our data also demonstrate a real departure from simple scaling at much larger magnitudes, the cause of which is not definitively established. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]