Why Do Mass Movements Occur?

Mass Movements occurring

We've seen that mass movements travel at a range of different velocities, from slow (creep) to faster (slumps, mud flows and debris flows, and rock slides and debris slides) to fastest (snow avalanches, and rock and debris falls. The velocity depends on the steepness of the slope and the water or air content of the mass. For these movements to take place, the stage must be set by the following phenomena: fracturing and weathering, which weaken materials at Earth’s surface so that they cannot hold up against the pull of gravity; and the development of relief, which provides slopes down which masses move. 

Weakening the Substrate  by Fragmentation and Weathering 

jointing broke up this thick sandstone bed along a cliff in Utah. Blocks of sandstone break free along joints and tumble downslope.

If the Earth’s surface were covered by intact (unbroken) rock, mass movements would be of little concern, for intact rock has great strength and could form stalwart mountain faces that would rarely tumble. But the rock of the Earth’s upper crust has been fractured by jointing and faulting (figure above), and in many locations the surface has a cover of regolith resulting from the weathering of rock. Regolith and fractured rock are much weaker than intact rock and can indeed collapse in response to gravitational pull. Thus jointing, faulting, and weathering ultimately make mass movements possible. 

Why are regolith and fractured rocks weaker than intact bedrock? The answer comes from looking at the strength of the attachments holding materials together. A mass of intact bedrock is relatively strong because the chemical bonds within its interlocking grains, or within the cements between grains, can’t be broken easily. A mass of loose rocks or of regolith, in contrast, is relatively weak because the grains are held together only by friction, electrostatic attraction, and/or surface tension of water. All of these forces combined are weaker than chemical bonds holding together the atoms in the minerals of intact rock. To picture this contrast, think about how much easier it is to bust up a sand castle (whose strength comes primarily from the surface tension of water films on the sand grains) than it is to bust up a granite sculpture of a castle.

Slope Stability 

Mass movements do not take place on all slopes, and even on slopes where such movements are possible, they occur only occasionally. Geologists distinguish between stable slopes, on which sliding is unlikely, and unstable slopes, on which sliding will likely happen. When material starts moving on an unstable slope, we say that slope failure has occurred. Whether a slope fails or not depends on the balance between two forces the downslope force, caused by gravity, and the resistance force, which inhibits sliding. If the downslope force exceeds the resistance force, the slope fails and mass movement results.

Forces that trigger downslope movement.

Let’s examine this phenomenon more closely by imagining a block sitting on a slope. We can represent the gravitational attraction between this block and the Earth by an arrow (a vector) that points straight down, toward the Earth’s centre of gravity. This arrow can be separated into two components the downslope force parallel to the slope and the normal force perpendicular to the slope. We can symbolize the resistance force by an arrow pointing uphill. If the down slope force is larger than the resistance force, then the block moves; otherwise, it stays in place (figure above a, b). Note that for a given mass, downslope forces are greater on steeper slopes. 

The angle of repose is the steepest slope that a pile of unconsolidated sediment can have and remain stable. The angle depends on the shape and size of grains.

What produces a resistance force? As we saw above, chemical bonds in mineral crystals or cement hold intact rock in place, friction holds an unattached block in place, electrical charges and friction hold dry regolith in place, and surface tension holds wet regolith in place. Because of resistance force, granular debris tends to pile up to produce the steepest slope it can without collapsing. The angle of this slope is called the angle of repose, and for most dry, unconsolidated materials (such as dry sand) it typically has a value of between 30° and 37°. The angle depends partly on the shape and size of grains, which determine the amount of friction across grain boundaries. For example, steeper angles of repose (up to 45°) tend to form on slopes composed of large, irregularly shaped grains (figure above). 

Different kinds of weak surfaces can become failure surfaces.

In many locations, the resistance force is less than might be expected because a weak surface exists at some depth below ground level. If down slope movement begins on the weak surface, we can say that the weak surface has become a failure surface. Geologists recognize several different kinds of weak surfaces that are likely to become failure surfaces (figure above a–c). These include wet clay layers; wet, unconsolidated sand layers; joints; weak bedding planes (shale beds and evaporite beds are particularly weak); and metamorphic foliation planes. Weak surfaces that dip parallel to the land surface slope are particularly likely to fail. An example of such failure occurred in Madison Canyon, south western Montana, on August 17, 1959. 

That day, vibrations from a strong earthquake jarred the region. Metamorphic rock with a strong foliation that could serve as weak surfaces formed the bedrock of the canyon’s southern wall. When the ground vibrated, rock detached along a foliation plane and tumbled down slope. Unfortunately, 28 campers lay sleeping on the valley floor. They were probably awakened by the hurricane-like winds blasting in front of the moving mass, but seconds later were buried under 45 m of rubble. 

Fingers on the Trigger:  What Causes Slope Failure? 

What triggers an individual mass-wasting event? In other words, what causes the balance of forces to change so that the downslope force exceeds the resistance force, and a slope suddenly fails? Here, we look at various phenomena natural and human-made that trigger slope failure.

Shocks, vibrations, and liquefaction

Earthquake tremors, storms, the passing of large trucks, or blasting in construction sites may cause a mass that was on the verge of moving actually to start moving. For example, an earthquake-triggered slide dumped debris into Lituya Bay, in south-eastern Alaska, in 1958. The debris displaced the water in the bay, creating a 300-m-high (1,200  ft) splash that washed forests off the slopes bordering the bay and carried fishing boats anchored in the bay many kilometres out to sea. The vibrations of an earthquake break bonds that hold a mass in place and/or cause the mass and the slope to separate slightly, thereby decreasing friction. As a consequence, the resistance force decreases, and the downslope force sets the mass in motion. Shaking can also cause liquefaction of wet sediment by either increasing water pressure in spaces between grains so that the grains are pushed apart, or by breaking the cohesion between the grains.

Changing slope loads, steepness, and support

As we have seen, the stability of a slope at a given time depends on the balance between the downslope force and the resistance force. Factors that change one or the other of these forces can lead to failure. Examples include changes in slope loads, failure-surface strength, slope steepness, and the support  provided by material at the base of the slope.

Stages leading to the 1925 Gros Ventre slide in Wyoming.

Slope loads change when the weight of the material above a potential failure plane changes. If the load increases, due to construction of buildings on top of a slope or due to saturation of regolith with water due to heavy rains, the downslope force increases and may exceed the resistance force. Seepage of water into the ground may also weaken underground failure surfaces, further decreasing resistance force. An example of such failure triggered the largest observed landslide in U.S. history, the Gros Ventre Slide, which took place in 1925 on the flank of Sheep Mountain, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming (figure above). Almost 40 million cubic meters of rock, as well as the overlying soil and forest, detached from the side of the mountain and slid 600 m downslope, filling a valley and forming a 75-m-high natural dam across the Gros Ventre River. 

Removing support at the base of a slope due to river or wave erosion or to construction efforts plays a major role in triggering many slope failures. In effect, the material at the base of a slope acts like a dam holding back the material farther up the slope. 

Undercutting and collapse of a sea cliff.

In some cases, erosion by a river or by waves eats into the base of a cliff and produces an overhang. When such undercutting has occurred, rock making up the overhang eventually breaks away from the slope and falls (figure above a, b).

Changing the slope strength

The stability of a slope depends on the strength of the material constituting it. If the material weakens with time, the slope becomes weaker and eventually collapses. Three factors influence the strength of slopes: 

1. Weathering: With time, chemical weathering produces weaker minerals, and physical weathering breaks rocks apart. Thus, a formerly intact rock composed of strong minerals is transformed into a weaker rock or into regolith. 
2. Vegetation cover: In the case of slopes underlain by regolith, vegetation tends to strengthen the slope because the roots hold otherwise unconsolidated grains together. Also, plants absorb water from the ground, thus keeping it from turning into slippery mud. The removal of vegetation therefore has the net result of making slopes more susceptible to downslope mass movement. Deforestation in tropical rainforests, similarly, leads to catastrophic mass wasting of the forest’s substrate. 
3. Water content: Water affects materials comprising slopes in many ways. Surface tension, due to the film of water on grain surfaces, may help hold regolith together. But if the water content increases, water pressure may push grains apart so that regolith liquefies and can begin to flow. Water infiltration may make weak surfaces underground more slippery, or may push surfaces apart and decrease friction. Some kinds of clays absorb water and expand, causing the ground surface to rise and, as a consequence, break up.

Figures credited to Stephen Marshak.

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