Erosion and Mass Movement Tips
Read these 4 Erosion and Mass Movement Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Natural Science tips and hundreds of other topics.
Factors in Landslides
In general, the type of mass movement (whether creep, landslide, etc) is determined by several factors. The amount of clay in the material, the amount of water, and the slope are important factors. If your hillside home sits on a clayey soil or rock, and there has been a lot of rain lately, you are definitely more at risk for some sort of mass movement such as a landslide or mudslide.
Landslide History
When buying a home in a hillside area, check with your local geological or soil survey. If the area has a history of landslides, you have a higher likelihood of suffering damage from mass movement in the future.
Damage from Mass Wasting
Although geologic hazards like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions get the most attention, more damage occurs in a single day from slow or sudden downward movement of the upper layers of soil and rock (called mass wasting) than from years of earthquake damage. Before you build a home on a hillside, check with your state geological survey for information on slope stability and history of slope failure in your area.
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