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E&LS Landslide
E&LS Landslide
Movements/
Wasting
What are they?
Mass movements include:
• Landslides
• Rock falls
• Avalanches
• Mud flows
• Debris flows
• Creep
Anatomy of a
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rotational landslide
>100 km/year
<1 cm/year
0% ~40%
Mass Movements
• Material moves downslope due to the pull of gravity
• Can happen almost anywhere
• Commonly associated with other events (heavy rainfall or earthquakes, for
example) and are therefore underreported
• Movements can either be catastrophic (slope failure) or slow and steady (creep)
• The rate of the mass movement can be increased by various erosive agents
(especially water)
Factors in Slope Stability
Gravity
Water
Earth Materials
Triggering Events
Gravity & steepening of a slope
How to cause a landslide: add or
subtract a mass …in the wrong place
Common when
building near
slopes
Common when
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to see this picture.
Rotational landslide
Angle of Repose Varies for Different Materials
Water decreases rock/soil cohesion
Water decreases rock/soil cohesion
Water decreases rock/soil cohesion
Water circulating underground can dissolve cements
that hold sedimentary rocks together
Internal Causes for Slope Failure
• Water (weight & interaction with clay minerals)
• Decreasing rock cohesion
• Incompetent/weak material
• Adverse geologic structures
The Weight of Water
• Sedimentary rocks commonly have porosities of 10 30%
• If pore spaces fill with water, the weight of the material is
increased substantially, creating instability
La Conchita, CA
March 1995
It happened again in 2004…
in exactly the same place…
La Conchita, CA
Debris flows or mud flows
• Mass movements that behave like fluids
• Unlike slides, flows are not controlled by a failure
surface, but instead are dominated by internal
movements
Landslides in the Bay Area
1982 San Mateo County
Devil’s slide area on Highway 1 north of Half Moon Bay
Devil’s Slide
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Rock Falls
Creep
• Downslope movement of soil and uppermost bedrock
• Creep happens at too slow of a rate to observe directly
• Instead, creep can be identified by it’s effect on objects
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Risk factors to increase likelihood of mass movement
Gravity hill slopes more vulnerable (on top of a hill, on
the slope, or at the bottom of a hill), modified
slopes (road cut, cut flat area to build on, coastal
erosion, etc.)
Water risk is higher when ground is saturated and/or
during heavy rains, El Niño events
Earth Materials loose soils (particularly clayrich) or
fractured rock, and old landslides pose greater risk
Triggering Events heavy rain during storm, rain after big
storms or fires, earthquakes (when ground is
saturated?)…are all triggers