Mass Wasting & Erosion
All About Mass Wasting
Mass wasting is the movement of rock and slope under the influence of gravity, it is synonymous with slope failure. Mass wasting is also known as mass movement. This is a general term for the movement of rock or soil down slopes under the force of gravity. It differs from other processes of erosion in that the debris transported by mass wasting is not entrained in a moving medium, such as water, wind, or ice.
There are 4 main factors that control the slope of a surface:
The strength of materials
The consolidation of materials (tightly or loosely packed)
The saturation of materials
The classification of mass wasting
There are also 4 main long-term effects of mass wasting:
the topography of the earth's surface, particularly the morphologies of mountain and valley systems, both on the continents and on the ocean floors
the character/quality of rivers and streams and groundwater flow
the forests that cover much of the earth's subaerial surface
the habitats of natural wildlife that exist on the earth's surface, including its rivers, lakes, and oceans.
These long-term effects can have a really negative impact on our environment and can hurt a lot of organisms.
Types of Mass Wasting Events:
Landslides:
falls
rotational and translational slides
flows
creeps
Flows
Slides
Falls
Creeps
Weathering/Erosion:
Weathering is the process of decomposing, breaking up, or changing the color of rocks. Weathering may be caused by the action of water, air, chemicals, plants, or animals. There are two types of weathering: mechanical and chemical.
Mechanical weathering is the process of breaking a large rock into smaller pieces without changing the minerals in the rock. Mechanical weathering may be caused by frost, ice, plant roots, running water, or heat from the sun.
Chemical weathering involves chemical changes in the minerals of the rock, or on the surface of the rock, that make the rock change its shape or color. Carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and acids may all cause chemical weathering.