How does water help cause mass movements?

Although water is not always directly involved as the transporting medium in mass movement processes, it does play an important role. Water can reduce the friction along a sliding surface. Water has the ability to change the angle of repose (the slope angle which is the stable angle for the slope).

What can encourage mass flow by?

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 are the 4 triggers for mass movement?

Mass-wasting events often have a trigger: something changes that causes a landslide to occur at a specific time. It could be rapid snowmelt, intense rainfall, earthquake shaking, volcanic eruption, storm waves, rapid-stream erosion, or human activities, such as grading a new road.

How is water used to encourage mass flow?

Water can encourage mass flow by: reducing friction between grains undercutting a steep slope weathering bedrock to clay minerals

How to describe the mechanisms of mass wasting?

• Define mass wasting and explain why it occurs. • Identify the various factors that govern mass wasting and the ways in which mass wasting is triggered. • Describe the mechanisms of mass wasting and the subdivision of mass wasting into falling, sliding, and flow.

Which is the best material for mass wasting?

• For most unconsolidated materials, the angle of repose is between 25 and 40 degrees. Talus (coarse, angular material) has a higher angle of repose (up to 45 degrees). Factors That Influence Mass Wasting Fig. 12.1 Factors That Influence Mass Wasting Cohesion • A rock’s resistance to sliding Oversteepening

How is mass wasting related to plate tectonics?

• Illustrate how mass wasting can be triggered by events linked to plate tectonics. • The downslope movement of material moved by the pull of gravity is known as mass wasting • Surface processes and tectonic activity can make Earth’s slopes unstable. Mass Wasting: An Overview • Mass wasting can be rapid or imperceptibly slow.