Causes: Natural and Human

Landslides are not individual events, they occur in conjunction with other factors Landslides occur
when the hill or mountain side is unstable. Factors that can allow gravity to overcome the resistance
of earth material are:

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Erosion (the natural wearing away of rocks and soil) by rivers, glaciers or oceans can overly steepen
slopes. (USGS)

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Addition of moisture - Moisture equals weight and water from heavy rainfall, flooding, rapid snow
melting, glacier melting, and an increased water table can all saturate the hillside and cause a
landslide. El Nino, the weather phenomenon that can increase precipitation, led to thousands of
landslides in 1982-83 and 1997-1998. (USGS)

Above landslide in Oregon caused by massive flooding (Photo courtesy of www.lcd.state.or.us/

coast/hazards.html)

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Shocks and Vibrations - Earthquakes, typically those of 4.0 magnitude and above, can can create
stresses that weaken slopes. Earthquakes tend to produce the largest and most destructive
landslides. The earthquake-induced Alaskan landslide of 1964 happened when the vibrations
disrupted the clay soil particles and the water contained in them rose to the surface. The picture
below shows one of the 1964 landslides that struck an elementary school. (Landslides Triggered by
Earthquakes)

Photo credit: U.S.G.S., Menlo Park, CA

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Volcanic eruptions can produce loose ash deposits, heavy rain, and debris flows. The eruption of
Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 triggered massive landslides, including the largest landslide in the
world, which moved 2.8 km^3 of earth material. (USGS)

Click on the above picture to see a short informational movie clip about the Mount St. Helens
landslides!

The Human Effect on Landslides

Overdevelopment - Human activities such as construction, building, transportation, building dams

and canals, and mining can disturb large volumes of earth materials. In fact, landslide damage is
increasing every year as our population expands further into hilly regions. The San Francisco Bay
region is turbulent enough on its own, but as more people overdevelop the land becomes less and
less stable. The picture to the right displays the devastating effects of building too close to a hill with
landslide potential. (photo credit: R.L. Schuster, U.S.G.S)

Deforestation - As the human population grows the demand for clear land for crops and housing
grows too. So forests, with trees that hold the soil in place, are logged, burned, and developed. And
while this alone will usually not cause a landslide, the land becomes much more susceptible to heavy
rains and floods and landslides can occur with much less rain than if a forest was still there.
Wildfires, either natural or manmade, also have the same effect. (Socioeconomic and
environmental...)