Mass Wasting Flashcards
What is mass wasting?
Downslope movement of rock and soil under gravity
What is the role of mass wasting?
Geologic process (follows weathering)
Mass wasting & running water produce stream valleys
What are important factors of mass wasting?
Water
Oversteepening of slopes
Removal of anchoring vegetation
Earthquakes
What are the most common triggers for landslides?
Earthquakes
Excessive water
What are the types of mass wasting?
Slump
Rockslide
Debris Flow (mudflow)
Earthflow
Slow movements
What is a slump?
Involves the downward movement of material along a curved surface of rupture
What is a rockslide?
Blocks of bedrock sliding down a slope
What is debris flow (mudflow)?
Consists of soil and regolith with a large amount of water
What is an aureole?
Zones of metamorphic grade surrounding an intrusion
What is an earthflow?
Slumps from from the upper part of a hillside, leaving a scarp, and flows slowly downslope as a thick, viscous, tongue-shaped mass of wet regolith
What are the types of slow movements?
Creep
Solifluction
What is a creep?
Involves extremely slow downhill movement of soil or rock
What is solifluction?
The slow downslope movement of water saturated surface sediment
