Slope Processes & Mass Wasting

• Slopes are product of processes mainly controlled

by:
1. Water: slopewash and running water
2. Gravity: mass movement
• Wind can also be locally important
• Rates affected by climate, vegetation, relief, rock
type, uplift rate, etc.

http://www2.pvc.maricopa.edu/~douglass/v_trips/
• Weathering vital for slope development: wxing/introduction_files/wheresthesoil.html

provides material for removal

• Slopes can be weathering-limited: erosion
removes material faster than it can be produced
(arid areas, mountains): steep slopes
• Slopes can be transport-limited: erosion operates
less rapidly than weathering, so material
accumulates over time (humid temperate areas):
gentler slopes
Transport-limited or
weathering-limited?

Mt. Everest, Nepal

Role of Water in
Slope Processes
 Water on slopes
• Three water-related mechanisms
work on slopes to remove material:
1. Rainsplash
2. Slopewash
3. Solute transport

• Rainsplash & slopewash only effective on

soil-covered slopes
• Solute transport can work on both soil-
covered and bare rock slopes
 1. Rainsplash
• Surface characteristics & slope gradient control
effectiveness of rainsplash
• On a flat surface, net erosion is zero
• Higher the slope angle, more particles removed by
rainsplash
• Sandy surfaces more susceptible than clay surfaces
(cohesion differences)
• Vegetation protects surface
• Bigger raindrops have proportionally much more impact
than small ones

http://inst.sfcc.edu/~gmead/sedrks/sedrock1.htm
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/enviro/soil/erosion.htm
 2. Slopewash
http://ralph.swan.ac.uk/hydrophobicity/research.html http://soilerosion.net/doc/water_erosion.html

• Movement of thin water film across slope

• Carries mostly fine material
• Amplifies the effects of rainsplash by removing
material
• Flow concentration causes precursor to larger
channels: rills -> gullies

• Two reasons for surface runoff:

1. Infiltration limited
– Rain intensity too high for all of it to
infiltrate
2. Saturation excess
– Soil is too saturated for any more
infiltration to occur
Infiltration limited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXDQLTxy3mo

Saturation Excess:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBnG0nye4OA
3. Solute transport

• Water dissolves material

• Net loss not as visible as surface
erosion
• Loss into solution causes
concentration of remaining
insoluble particles
• Biggest losses seen on limestone
terrain (underground) because of https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fohiodnr.gov%2Fwps%2Fportal%2Fgov%2Fodnr%2Fdiscover-and-learn%2Fsafety-conservation%2Fgeologic-hazards%2Fkarst&psig=AOvVaw1ThZBZKY7teZ2UKnJPzW7-&ust=1616788256524000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNjr1uGbzO8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP

the solubility of CaCO3

Summary of slope water processes
1. Rainsplash
 Loosens, moves particles

2. Slopewash
 Can move loose particles

3. Rills
 Concentrated flow can move larger particles

4. Gullies
 Can remove large amounts of material rapidly

5. Solute transport
 Dissolves minerals
 Includes ground water movement
Water and landslides
Stabilizing Destabilizing
• Friction from gravity • Water
• Surrounding material • Earthquakes
• Tree roots/vegetation • Slope angle/potential energy
(gravity)
• Loose material
Mass Movement
Mass Movement (wasting)
• Mass wasting = transport of rock and soil
downslope under the influence of gravity
• E.g., Landslides, rock falls
• Includes weathered and unweathered
materials
• Net effect is movement of material from
slopes to valley floors below
• Mass wasting is mostly erosion

• Weathering = disintegration (physical

breakdown) or decomposition (chemical
alteration) of material (small component)
• Erosion = physical removal of material

• Unlike ‘normal’ erosion, mass movements

typically occur as a single unit (happens at
once)
 Slope stability
• Depends on both stresses on slope and
strength of material

• Factors increasing shear stress:

• Slope steepening
• Removal of underlying support
• Loading of upper slope

• Factors reducing strength:

• Weathering effects (e.g., freeze-thaw)
• Increase in water content
• Removal of vegetation
Angle of repose

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Angle-of-repose-against-particle-size-points-measured-lines-simulated_fig3_235282995
 Liquefaction
 Shaking of surface breaks ionic bonds
between water particles
– Very effective in clays
– ‘Quick sand’
– Major cause of damage during earthquakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2QkgFVMXU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd6W2aP2dk
A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6xrf6VwRMg

Christchurch, New Zealand

POLL1
How does mass move?
5 main mechanisms
 1. Falls (rockfalls)
• Downward movement of rock or soil through
the air from steep slopes
• Detachment by freezing pressure, root pressure,
wave action along coasts, earthquakes, etc.
• Also due to structural failure in rock (joints,
cleavage, bedding planes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvSe27Ht-NY
• Form talus cone at base of slope
 2. Slides & 3. Slumps
• Slope movement along one or more surfaces or shear planes
• Can be translational (slides) or rotational (slumps)
• Widespread process: common in wet areas, also in earthquake-prone areas
• Occurs on steep to gentle slopes
2. Slides (translational)
• Movement along straight shear
planes parallel to ground
• Often on weak layer; planar bedding
• Slower than a rockfall
• Have identifiable slide scar, sliding
plane and debris mass

Tennessee: Nov. 10, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=ZVYGJYnJTi0
2. Slides: rock avalanches
• Similar to translational slides, but have much higher
velocities and travel distances
• Composed of large masses of rocky materials that break
up into smaller pieces where they fall or slide
• Velocities are 10s-100s km/h
• Often triggered by earthquakes

1970 Huascaran (Peru) rock

avalanche killed >60,000
3. Slumps (rotational)
• Concave (curved) shear planes
• Lowers head of slumping mass & may raise toe
• Single or multiple units may slump
• Usually fairly deep events
• Requires deep percolation of water; may occur
long after rain event has ended

Italy: February 16, 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=E5FF3vIEIqg
 4. Creep
• Slowest form of mass movement
(<1-2 cm/yr)
• Most widespread & persistent of
movements
• Assisted by freezing and thawing,
wetting & drying, burrowing organisms,
weathering
• No distinctive landforms: secondary
evidence from trees, fences, gravestones,
etc.

http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/geo/courses/ge304/images/rockslide.jpeg
Just like a glacier!
 Solifluction lobes
 Mass movement of soil affected by alternate
freezing and thawing
– Form of creep
– Frequent in periglacial environments where
water cannot absorb into ground
– Faster moving sediment ‘bunches-up’ into
lobes
5. Flows • Sufficient water to lubricate
• Movement similar to viscous fluid
• Range of material from larger size (debris flows,
earthflows) to fine materials (mudflows)
• Most common during heaving rain/flash flooding
• Fairly rapid events
• Earthflows up to few km/hr
• Debris flows up to tens km/hr

Unlike slides, there

is no detachment in
Earthflow flows
Debris flow
 http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/geo/courses/ge304/images/debrisflow.jpeg

• May stay narrow if confined, spread

out at base when flat to form tongue

• Common event during/after intense

rain

Earth Flow, Colorado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C
yY3bCV8K-M

Debris Flows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
43R3mjiNBKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5
1C7vEAVbxk
 Lemieux Mudflow, 20 June 1993
 40 km east of Ottawa, shore of
South Nation River
 After testing of soils, discovered
that town was built on unstable
clay, and was relocated from 1989-
1991
 Despite a low slope, heavy rains
caused a mudflow in June 1993
 Moved 3 million m3 of sediment in
under 1 hour

See Jan’s talk next week!

Google Earth: search on 45.40, -75.06
 Subsidence
• Downward movement by sinking of the
earth’s surface
• Can be either instantaneous collapse (cavity
collapse) or slow progressive lowering of
ground surface (settlement)

• Instantaneous collapse mostly in limestone

areas (dissolution); lava tubes may also
collapse

• Settlement: water table lowering, oil

extraction, material resettling after
earthquake, salt mining, broken water
mains, permafrost melting
Summary
• Water often destabilizes surfaces
• Earthquakes shake leading to destabilization and liquefaction
• Gravity is always involved (always move to lower elevations)
• Falls, slides, slumps, creep, and flows are all ways to move
mass