Exam 10: Mass Wasting

Why is the California coastline so susceptible to losses (both property and monetarily) due to mass wasting? Put together what you've learned so far for the answer.

Briefly explain why saturated clays are considered as very unstable slope materials.

On the basis of what three criteria are mass movements classified?

The material accumulated at the base of cliffs where rocks fall is known as ____________________.

In the ____________________ method of protecting slopes, steps are cut into a hillside to reduce the overall average slope and catch small landslides or rockfalls.

How can overloading affect slope stability?

What factors played a role in the tragic rockslide at Frank, Alberta, Canada, in 1903?

How does gravity affect a slope?

What factors contribute to mass wasting in tropical versus arid and semiarid climates?

Clays that spontaneously liquefy and flow like water are called ____________________ clays.

What is the effect of reducing water on a slope to mass movements? How can this be done?

Solifluction is not a serious economic problem because it occurs mainly in unpopulated areas.

In the ____________________ and ____________________ method of protecting slopes, material is removed from the top of the slope and used as fill at the base.

How does the geology (dip of rock layers or joints) on a slope affect slope stability?

How does water content affect mass wasting?

Curved tree trunks, displaced monuments, tilted power poles, displaced and tilted fences, roadways moved out of alignment, and hummocky surfaces are all evidence of ____________________.

Slow mass movement transports a greater volume of material than rapid mass movement.

How does weathering promote mass wasting?

Movement that is made of more than one type of mass wasting, each of which are more or less equally involved, is called ____________________ movement.

Mass wasting occurs on: