The most common mass-wasting types are falls, rotational and translational slides, flows, and creep.
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.
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.
Answer : Mass wasting is the removal of rock debris or the material of earth under the gravity. Mass wasting suits better than mass movement as this leads to removal of large amount of earth's crust and also wastage of valuable rock/minerals over a surface.
A rock fall are the fastest of all landslide types and occurs when a rock falls through the air until it comes to rest on the ground—not too complicated.
Falls are abrupt movements of masses of geologic materials, such as rocks and boulders, that become detached from steep slopes or cliffs. Separation occurs along discontinuities such as fractures, joints, and bedding planes, and movement occurs by free-fall, bouncing, and rolling.
Rock falls, slumps, and debris flows are all examples of mass wasting. Often lubricated by rainfall or agitated by seismic activity, these events may occur very rapidly and move as a flow.
The causes of mass wasting include an increased slope steepness, increased water, decreased vegetation and earthquakes. One of the types of mass wasting that is an example of the slope failing is a slump. This is the sliding of coherent rock material along a curved surface.
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.
Gravity is the main driving force behind mass-wasting processes, as it is constantly attempting to force material downhill. On a slope, gravity can be resolved into two components, one perpendicular to the slope, and one parallel to the slope. The steeper the angle of the slope, the greater the influence of gravity.
Geology100
| Question | Answer |
|---|
| Which statement best describes slumping, a mass wasting process? | a block or blocks of unconsolidated regolith slide downhill along a curved slip surface |
| Which mass wasting process has the slowest rate of movement? | creep |
Creep is the imperceptibly slow, downslope movement of soil and earth materials. Trees, having root systems near the surface, are often affected by creep. As trees succomb to creep, they continue to grow phototropically toward the Sun, giving the trunks of the trees a curved shape.
Slow forms of mass wasting such as creep and solifluction are considered slow because they are restricted to gentle slopes and cannot achieve the same velocity. Solifluction occurs during the warmer months of the melt season.
Types of mass movementFlows are a mixture of water, rock and sediment. They move very quickly. Large flows can bury entire villages. A slide happens when a section of soil or rock suddenly gives way and moves down a slope.
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
Volcanic landslides, also called lahars, are among the most devastating type of landslides.
