What causes landslide?

Answer 1

Essentially, a landslide results from the failure of soil and rock on hillsides to remain securely in place, as for one reason or another, they lose cohesion. Another major force is gravity. Gravity causes stress for slope materials such as rocks and soil, because it is constantly acting to try to pull the materials downslope.

Any of the following factors can contribute to landslides:

• Tree clearing and deforestation: with fewer trees and tree roots to secure the soil, landslides can more easily occur.
• Earthquakes: earth tremors can destabilise hillsides.
• Excessive rainfall: super-saturated soils can not hold up against gravity.
• Use of landfill to build up hillsides and roadways: landfill is not a stable as solid ground or rock.
• Mining activities, quarrying and excavation: blasting causes vibrations which can have the same effect as eartquakes and tremors, while undermining a slope causes instability.
• Drought: drier soil is less cohesive than damp soil.

Answer 2

Essentially, a landslide results from the failure of soil and rock on hillsides to remain securely in place, as for one reason or another, they lose cohesion. Another major force is gravity. Gravity causes stress for slope materials such as rocks and soil, because it is constantly acting to try to pull the materials downslope.

Any of the following factors can contribute to landslides:

• Tree clearing and deforestation: with fewer trees and tree roots to secure the soil, landslides can more easily occur.
• Earthquakes: earth tremors can destabilise hillsides.
• Excessive rainfall: super-saturated soils can not hold up against gravity.
• Use of landfill to build up hillsides and roadways: landfill is not a stable as solid ground or rock.
• Mining activities, quarrying and excavation: blasting causes vibrations which can have the same effect as eartquakes and tremors, while undermining a slope causes instability.
• Drought: drier soil is less cohesive than damp soil.

Answer 3

glaciers of ice that carve land mass and picks up portions of the land