Landslides

A landslide, or a mass of rock, earth or debris moving down a slope, may be minor or very large, and can move at slow to very high speeds. They can be initiated by storms, earthquakes, fires, volcanic eruptions or human modification of the land.

Mudslides (or mudflows or debris flows) are rivers of rock, earth, organic matter and other soil materials saturated with water. They develop in the soil overlying bedrock on sloping surfaces when water rapidly accumulates in the ground, such as during heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt. Water pressure in the pore spaces of the material increases to the point that the internal strength of the soil is drastically weakened. The soil's reduced resistance can then easily be overcome by gravity, changing the earth into a flowing river of mud or "slurry." A debris flow or mudflow can move rapidly down slopes or through channels, and can strike with little or no warning at avalanche speeds. The slurry can travel miles from its source, growing as it descends, picking up trees, boulders, cars and anything else in its path. Although these slides behave as fluids, they pack many times the hydraulic force of water, due to the mass of material included in them. Locally, they can be some of the most destructive events in nature.

Slides and earth flows can pose serious hazard to property in hillside terrain. They tend to move slowly and thus rarely threaten life directly. When they move—in response to such changes as increased water content, earthquake shaking, addition of load, or removal of downslope support—they deform and tilt the ground surface. The result can be destruction of foundations, offset of roads, breaking of underground pipes, or overriding of downslope property and structures.

Types of Landslides

Flows and slides are commonly categorized by the form of initial ground failure. The most common slide is the shallow colluvial slide, occurring particularly in response to intense, short-duration storms, where antecedent conditions are prevalent. The largest and most destructive are deep-seated slides, although they are less common.

Landslide Risk

All mass movements are caused by a combination of geological and climate conditions, as well as the encroaching influence of urbanization. Vulnerable natural conditions are affected by human residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial development and the infrastructure that supports it.

The occurrence of a landslide is dependent on a combination of site-specific conditions and influencing factors. Most commonly, the factors that contribute to landslides fall into four broad categories:

• Climatic or hydrologic (rainfall or precipitation)
• Geomorphic (slope form and conditions, e.g., slope, shape, height, steepness, vegetation and underlying geology)
• Geologic/geotechnical/hydrogeological  (groundwater)
• Human activity.

Change in slope of the terrain, increased load on the land, shocks and vibrations, change in water content, groundwater movement, frost action, weathering of rocks, and removing or changing the type of vegetation covering slopes are all contributing factors. In general, landslide hazard areas are where the land has characteristics that contribute to the risk of the downhill movement of material, such as the following:

• A slope greater than 40 percent
• A history of landslide activity or movement during the last 10,000 years
• Stream or wave activity, which has caused erosion, undercut a bank or cut into a bank to cause the surrounding land to be unstable
• The presence of an alluvial fan, indicating vulnerability to the flow of debris or sediments
• The presence of impermeable soils, such as silt or clay, which are mixed with granular soils such as sand and gravel.

Erosion is the process by which material is removed from a region of the earth's surface. It can occur by weathering and transport of solids (sediment, soil, rock, and other particles) in the natural environment. This also leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere, which can increase the impacts from flood events. Erosion usually occurs as a result of transport of solids by wind, water or ice and by down-slope creep of soil and other material under the force of gravity, similar to landslides. It can also be caused by animals burrowing, reducing soil stability.

Although erosion is a natural process, as with landslides, human land use policies have an effect on erosion, especially industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urban sprawl. Land that is used for industrial agriculture generally experiences a significantly greater rate of erosion than land with natural vegetation or land used for sustainable agricultural. This is particularly true if tillage is used in farm practices, which reduces vegetation cover on the surface of the soil and disturbs both soil structure and plant roots that would otherwise hold the soil in place.

Improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques such as terracing or terrace-building, no or limited tilling, limited logging or replanting after logging, and the planting of vegetation to limit erosion through ground cover.