Shallow landslides typically involving just the soil mantle constitute both a primary process driving landscape evolution and a significant geologic hazard. Theory for and empirical documentation of shallow landslides generally assume that the elevated pore pressures that destabilize soils arise from runoff just within the soil. In many landscapes, however, it has been recognized that groundwater emerging from underlying weathered bedrock can generate destabilizing pore pressures. Here, we develop a coupled hydrologic and slope stability model that explicitly explores how a conductive bedrock weathering zone guides storm runoff and localizes shallow landslides across a watershed. The distinctiveness of the location, size, and timing of predicted landslides suggests that the influence of subsurface structure may be estimated from landslide mapping patterns.