Landslide
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A landslide includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows.
The primary reason for a landslide is always that there is a slope and material goes downwards because of gravity.
But there are other contributing factors as well:
- erosion by rivers, glaciers, or ocean waves create oversteepened slopes
- rock and soil slopes are weakened through saturation by snowmelt or heavy rains
- earthquakes create stresses that make weak slopes fail (see liquefaction, Hope Slide)
- volcanic eruptions produce loose ash deposits, heavy rain, and debris flows
- vibrations from machinery, traffic, blasting and even thunder may trigger failure of weak slopes
- excess weight from much rain or snow, stockpiling of rock or ore, from waste piles, or from man-made structures may stress weak slopes to failure and other structures
- groundwater pressure acting to destabilise the slope
- in shallow soils, the removal of deep-rooted vegetation that binds the colluvium to bedrock.
[edit] External links
- United States Geological Survey site
- British Columbia government landslide information
- Slide!, a program on B.C.'s Knowledge Network, with video clips
- Geoscience Australia Fact Sheet [1]