- Why is mass movement important?
- What is the most important factor in causing mass movements?
- What can people do to reduce the risk of mass movement?
- What factors are responsible for mass movements how are such movements triggered?
- What is the importance of weathering and mass movement at the coast?
- How does mass movement affect the coast?
- What two factors are significant to mass movements?
- During what season would you expect mass movements to be a greater threat?
- What are the controls and triggers of mass wasting?
- Can mass movement be controlled?
- Why can the removal of vegetation trigger mass movements?
- How does mass movement affect the landscape?
- What is topple in mass movement?
- What is weathering and why is it important?
- How does mass movement cause cliffs collapse?
- How does mass movement affect erosion?
Why is mass movement important?
Mass movements are an important part of the erosional process, as it moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where transporting agents like streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations.
What is the most important factor in causing mass movements?
Gravity is the main force responsible for mass movements. Gravity is a force that acts everywhere on the Earth's surface, pulling everything in a direction toward the center of the Earth.
What can people do to reduce the risk of mass movement?
Engineering solutions include barriers and retaining walls, drainage pipes, terracing the slope to reduce the steepness of the cuts, and immediate revegetation. Rockfalls can be controlled or eliminated by the use of rock bolts, cables, and screens and by cutting back slopes to lesser gradients.
What factors are responsible for mass movements how are such movements triggered?
Such factors include: weathering or erosional debris cover on slopes, which is usually liable to mass movement; the character and structure of rocks, such as resistant permeable beds prone to sliding because of underlying impermeable rocks; the removal of the vegetation cover, which increases the slope's susceptibility ...
What is the importance of weathering and mass movement at the coast?
As well as wave energy, other geomorphological processes can modify the coastline. Chemical, mechanical and biological weathering loosen rocks, in advance of their removal by waves and mass movement also provides loose material.
How does mass movement affect the coast?
With rotational slumping, heavy rain is absorbed by unconsolidated material making up the cliff (often glacial till, or boulder clay). The cliff face becomes heavier and eventually it separates from the material behind at a rain-lubricated slip plane.
What two factors are significant to mass movements?
Ultimately, this comes down to the dynamics of two factors: gravity and steepness of slope. The steeper the slope, the greater potential for gravity to pull objects down.
During what season would you expect mass movements to be a greater threat?
Climate. During what season would you expect mass movement to be a greater threat? A wet spring before vegetation is growing.
What are the controls and triggers of mass wasting?
Mass-wasting events are triggered by changes that oversteepen slope angles and weaken slope stability, such as rapid snow melt, intense rainfall, earthquake shaking, volcanic eruption, storm waves, stream erosion, and human activities. Excessive precipitation is the most common trigger.
Can mass movement be controlled?
We cannot prevent mass wasting, however, in many situations there are actions we can take to reduce or mitigate the damaging effects of mass wasting on people and infrastructure. Where we can neither delay nor mitigate mass wasting, we may consider trying to initiate the slope failure in a controlled manner.
Why can the removal of vegetation trigger mass movements?
Vegetation removal can trigger mass wasting. Vegetation stabilizes soil. When it is removed from a slope, the slope is vulnerable to water and wind erosion. Earthquakes can also play a role in mass wasting due to the violent shaking they cause.
How does mass movement affect the landscape?
The broken rock fragments (as a result of weathering) move down the slope through mass movements . These can be rapid, such as landslides or slow as with soil creep: Landslides are occasional, rapid movements of a mass of earth or rock sliding along a steep slope.
What is topple in mass movement?
Topples: movements of rock, debris or earth masses by forward rotation about a pivot point.
What is weathering and why is it important?
Weathering causes the disintegration of rock near the surface of the earth. Plant and animal life, atmosphere and water are the major causes of weathering. Weathering breaks down and loosens the surface minerals of rock so they can be transported away by agents of erosion such as water, wind and ice.
How does mass movement cause cliffs collapse?
Bits of rock fall off the cliff face, usually due to freeze-thaw weathering. Saturated soil (soil filled with water) flows down a slope.
How does mass movement affect erosion?
Gravity can cause erosion and deposition. Gravity makes water and ice move. It also causes rock, soil, snow, or other material to move downhill in a process called mass movement. Particles in a steep sand pile move downhill.