Landslide

Landslide is the movement of rock, soil and debris down a hillside or slope. Landslides take lives, destroy homes, businesses, and public buildings, interrupt transportation, undermine bridges, derail train cars, cover marine habitat, and damage utilities.

Landslide

The term landslide includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes, and shallow debris flows. Ground failures that result in landslides occur when gravity overcomes the strength of a slope. While gravity is the primary reason for a landslide, there can be other contributing factors, including:

  • Saturation, by snowmelt or heavy rains, that weaken rock or soils on slopes.
  • Erosion by rivers, glaciers, or ocean waves that create over-steepened slopes.
  • Topography of a slope – its shape, size, degree of slope and drainage.
  • Stress from earthquakes magnitude 4.0 and greater can cause weak slopes to fail.
  • Volcanic eruptions that produce loose ash deposits and debris flows.
  • Excess weight, from accumulation of rain or snow, from stockpiling of rock or ore, from waste piles, or from manmade structures, may stress weak slopes to failure.
  • Human action, such as construction, logging or road building that disturbs soils and slopes.

Landslides occur where certain combinations of geologic formations are present. For example, groundwater can accumulate and zones of weakness can develop when layers of sand and gravel lay above less permeable silt and clay layers. In the Puget Sound region, for example, this combination is common and widespread; glacial outwash, often Esperance Sand or gravel, overlies the fine-grained Lawton Clay or Whidbey formation.

Commonly, landslides occur on slopes and in areas where they have taken place before, as well as in areas where they have not been previously documented. Areas historically subject to landslides include the Columbia River Gorge, the banks of Lake Roosevelt, the Interstate 5 corridor, U.S. 101 Highway corridor along the Pacific Coast and from the coast to Olympia, the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, and Puget Sound coastal bluffs.

Tips and Information about Landslides

Landslide Map

 

 

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