Landslides are not individual events, they occur in conjunction with other factors Landslides

occur when the hill or mountain side is unstable. Factors that can allow gravity to overcome
the resistance of earth material are:

Erosion (the natural wearing away of rocks and soil) by rivers, glaciers or oceans can
overly steepen slopes. (USGS)
Addition of moisture - Moisture equals weight and water from heavy rainfall, flooding,
rapid snow melting, glacier melting, and an increased water table can all saturate the
hillside and cause a landslide. El Nino, the weather phenomenon that can increase
precipitation, led to thousands of landslides in 1982-83 and 1997-1998. (USGS)

Above landslide in Oregon caused by massive flooding (Photo courtesy of www.lcd.state.or.us/ coast/hazards.html)

Shocks and Vibrations - Earthquakes, typically those of 4.0 magnitude and above, can can
create stresses that weaken slopes. Earthquakes tend to produce the largest and most
destructive landslides. The earthquake-induced Alaskan landslide of 1964 happened when
the vibrations disrupted the clay soil particles and the water contained in them rose to the
surface. The picture below shows one of the 1964 landslides that struck an elementary
school. (Landslides Triggered by Earthquakes)

Photo credit: U.S.G.S., Menlo Park, CA

Volcanic eruptions can produce loose ash deposits, heavy rain, and debris flows. The
eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 triggered massive landslides, including the
largest landslide in the world, which moved 2.8 km^3 of earth material. (USGS)

Click on the above picture to see a short informational movie clip about the Mount St. Helens
landslides!

The Human Effect on Landslides

Overdevelopment - Human activities such as construction, building, transportation, building

dams and canals, and mining can disturb large volumes of earth materials. In fact, landslide
damage is increasing every year as our population expands further into hilly regions. The San
Francisco Bay region is turbulent enough on its own, but as more people overdevelop the
land becomes less and less stable. The picture to the right displays the devastating effects of
building too close to a hill with landslide potential. (photo credit: R.L. Schuster, U.S.G.S)

Deforestation - As the human population grows the demand for clear land for crops and
housing grows too. So forests, with trees that hold the soil in place, are logged, burned, and
developed. And while this alone will usually not cause a landslide, the land becomes much
more susceptible to heavy rains and floods and landslides can occur with much less rain than
if a forest was still there. Wildfires, either natural or manmade, also have the same effect.
(Socioeconomic and environmental...)
When it comes to natural disasters, the tornadoes and tsunamis of the world tend to get all of
the attention. Rarely do landslides seize as many headlines as the volcanoes and earthquakes
that can cause them. But when the ground literally rips downhill, the effect is often more
damaging than the trigger. The force of landslides can cave houses, dam rivers and annihilate
entire towns. Worldwide, landslides were responsible for more than 30,000 deaths in 2005
[source: Petley]. They inflict damage that costs the United States alone at least $1 billion to
$2 billion each year, making them more damaging than all other natural disasters combined
[source: United States Search and Rescue Task Force].

Landslides are a form of mass movement, a term used to describe any sort of gravity-
induced movement of sediment down a slope. Mass movements can occur slowly over a
period of years, or they can happen in a matter of minutes. A mass movement can be as small
as some rocks and debris you kick down a small incline or as big as the 1980 landslide set off
by the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

There are many different kinds of mass movements categorized by the type of material
involved, the way it is moved and how fast it moves. However, with any mass movement, a
soil layer is separated to some degree from the underlying bedrock. Soil is the relatively
loose mixture of worn-down rock, minerals, air, water and decayed organic matter that covers
the ground. Bedrock is the more stable, solid layer of rock underneath.

Although the word landslide often is used (incorrectly) to encompass many types of mass
movements, a landslide is actually something more specific. A slide refers to a mass
movement where rocks and sediment are loosened from the stable, underlying bedrock along
a distinct zone of weakness. The rocks and sediment separate and move down the slope
rapidly. You could think of it as a poster fastened to a wall with tape. The poster will remain
on the wall barring any outside force acting on it. But if extra weight is attached to the poster,
or if the tape is moistened, the connection will be weakened and the poster will fall.

In this article you'll learn what happens if a landslide happens underwater, why deforestation
and water don't mix and just how powerful (and hot!) volcanic landslides can be.