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Landslides

Landslides are a geological event where large portions of ground break loose and slide down a slope. they can cause large amounts of damage, and are generally quite dangerous.

366 Questions

Can energy be released in an earthquake that can cause landslides and tsunamis?

Yes, during an earthquake, the release of energy can trigger landslides due to the shaking of the ground, which can dislodge rocks and soil. Additionally, underwater earthquakes can displace large volumes of water, generating tsunamis due to the transfer of energy to the ocean.

What to do during after before landslide?

  • Look for and report broken utility lines and damaged roadways and railways to appropriate authorities. Reporting potential hazards will get the utilities turned off as quickly as possible, preventing further hazard and injury.
Before a Landslide
  • Be aware of landslide susceptible areas in your neighborhood.
  • Recognize landslide warning signs before they happen so you know what to do when they happen.
Landslide Warning Signs
  • Changes occur in your landscape such as patterns of land movement, small slides, flows, or progressively leaning trees.
  • Doors or windows stick or jam for the first time.
  • New cracks appear in plaster, tile, brick, or foundations.
  • Outside walls, walks, or stairs begin pulling away from the building.
  • Slowly developing, widening cracks appear on the ground or on paved areas such as streets or driveways.
  • Bulging ground appears at the base of a slope.
  • Fences, retaining walls, utility poles, or trees tilt or move.
  • A faint rumbling sound that increases in volume is noticeable as the landslide nears.
  • Unusual sounds, such as trees cracking or boulders knocking together, might indicate moving debris.
  • Collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible debris flow can be seen when driving (embankments along roadsides are particularly susceptible to landslides).
If You Suspect Imminent Landslide Danger...
  • Contact your local fire, police, or public works department. Local officials are the best persons able to assess potential danger.
  • Inform affected neighbors. Your neighbors may not be aware of potential hazards. Advising them of a potential threat may help save lives. Help neighbors who may need assistance to evacuate.
  • Evacuate. Getting out of the path of a landslide or debris flow is your best protection.
  • If escape is not possible, curl into a tight ball and protect your head.
If a Landslide or Debris Flow Occurs
  • If there has been a period of heavy rainfall and you are in a landslide prone area, you may be at risk of a landslide. Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio or portable, battery-powered radio or television for warnings. Many debris-flow fatalities occur when people are sleeping. Stay alert and awake. Many debris-flow fatalities occur when people are sleeping.
  • If you are in areas susceptible to landslides and debris flows, consider leaving if it is safe to do so. Remember that driving during an intense storm can be hazardous. If you remain at home, move to a second story if possible. Staying out of the path of a landslide or debris flow saves lives.
  • Listen for any unusual sounds that might indicate moving debris, such as trees cracking or boulders knocking together. A trickle of flowing or falling mud or debris may precede larger landslides. Moving debris can flow quickly and sometimes without warning.
  • Be especially alert when driving. Watch the road for collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks, and other indications of possible debris flows.
After a Landslide
  • Listen to local radio or television stations for the latest emergency information.
  • Stay away from the slide area. There may be danger of additional slides.
  • Watch for flooding, which may occur after a landslide or debris flow. Floods sometimes follow landslides and debris flows because they may both be started by the same event.
  • Check for injured and trapped persons near the slide, without entering the direct slide area. Direct rescuers to their locations.
  • Help a neighbor who may require special assistance - infants, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Elderly people and people with disabilities may require additional assistance. People who care for them or who have large families may need additional assistance in emergency situations.
  • Look for and report broken utility lines and damaged roadways and railways to appropriate authorities. Reporting potential hazards will get the utilities turned off as quickly as possible, preventing further hazard and injury.

Why are earthquakes Tsunami and landslides classified as natural disaster?

Earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides are classified as natural disasters because they are caused by natural processes like tectonic movements or extreme weather events. They can result in severe damage to property, infrastructure, and loss of life, making them significant events that require emergency response and preparedness strategies.

Is landslide an effect of soil erosion?

Landslides can be an effect of soil erosion. When soil is eroded, it can weaken the stability of the land, making it more susceptible to landslides, especially during periods of heavy rainfall or seismic activity. Erosion removes vegetation that helps hold soil in place, increasing the likelihood of landslides occurring.

Is a landslide a physical or chemical change?

A landslide is a physical change because it involves the movement of rock and sediment down a slope due to gravity. There is no change in the chemical composition of the materials involved in a landslide.

What Precautions should be taken before and after landslides?

Before a landslide, it is advisable to monitor weather conditions, land movement, and signs of slope instability. It is important to avoid construction on steep slopes, maintain proper drainage systems, and reinforce vulnerable areas. After a landslide, it is crucial to stay away from affected areas, assess the damage, and evacuate if necessary. Secure utilities, clean up debris, and seek professional help for slope stabilization and restoration.

What are suggestions on landslides?

Areas that are generally prone to landslide hazards include existing old landslides; the bases of steep slopes; the bases of drainage channels; and developed hillsides where leach-field septic systems are used.

Areas that are typically considered safe from landslides include areas that have not moved in the past; relatively flat-lying areas away from sudden changes in slope; and areas at the top or along ridges, set back from the tops of slopes.

Learn what to watch for prior to major landsliding. Look for patterns of storm-water drainage on slopes near your home, noting especially the places where runoff water converges, increasing flow over soil-covered slopes. Check hillsides around your home for any signs of land movement, such as small landslides or debris flows or progressively tilting trees.

What is a submarine landslide What does it mean?

A submarine landslide is a mass movement of sediment or rock underwater, on the continental slope, seafloor, or continental rise. These events can be triggered by various factors such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, or excess sediment accumulation, and they can have hazardous consequences, including tsunamis and destruction of underwater infrastructure.

How can a landslide be gradual?

A landslide can be gradual when there is slow movement of soil or rock down a slope over a period of time. This slow movement may not be immediately noticeable but can cause gradual changes in the slope's stability leading to a landslide. Factors such as soil saturation, slope angle, and vegetation cover can contribute to the gradual buildup of instability.

How do you overcome landslides?

Immediate action has been taken and is being planned by the federal government to help remedy landslides problems in Malaysia. Such actions include:

  • The construction of the retaining wall
  • Plant more trees along hillsides
  • Make sure to build houses on firm ground

Do's and dont's during landslide?

During a landslide, do evacuate immediately to higher ground if safe to do so, listen to local authorities for guidance, and avoid areas prone to further landslides. Don't stay in low-lying areas, ignore evacuation orders, or return to your home until authorities deem it safe.

How many people were killed and how many get injured in thredbo landslide?

In the Thredbo landslide in 1997, 18 people were killed and 2 survived.

Do monsoon season causes landslides?

Yes, the monsoon season does cause floods. Due to the amount of rain that falls onto the country during the monsoon season, it can cause the rivers to over flow which will the flow into the city and destroy houses and works.

What caused The La Conchita landslide?

The La Conchita landslide in 2005 was primarily caused by heavy rainfall that saturated the soil on the steep coastal bluffs, leading to instability and eventually a catastrophic failure. The continuous rainfall weakened the rock and soil layers, resulting in a large mass of earth and debris sliding downhill. The presence of underlying geological factors, such as weak sedimentary rock and previous landslides, also contributed to the event.

What was the biggest election landslide in the uk?

Defining the "biggest landslide" in the UK is difficult to do - because different people have a different idea of what qualifies as the "biggest" landslide. This is in part due to the way in which the UK electoral system does not neatly translate popular support into seats - for example, in 1997 the winning party won more than 400 seats in the House of Commons for only the third time since 1900, but it did so with a lower share of the vote than the losing party had in the 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964 or 1970 general elections!


So disagreement can arise depending on whether or not you want to judge the biggest landslide in terms of seats, votes or a reasoned mix of both. The answer also changes depending on whether you count elections before 1928, when every adult man and woman could vote on equal terms (equal suffrage). These are all the possible ways of describing the biggest election landslide:

  • Biggest landslide in % of votes won (ever): The biggest share of the vote ever was for the Whig Party in 1832, when it won 67.0% of the vote against 29.2% for the Tories and an overall majority of 224 (441 seats).
  • Biggest landslide in % of votes won (under equal suffrage): At the 1955 general election, the Conservative group in Parliament won 49.74% of the popular vote - the highest share on record, slightly ahead of the Labour Party in 1945, which won 49.71% of the vote.

    There is an important difference between these two, however. In 1945, if you exclude Northern Ireland (where Labour has not nominated election candidates since 1913), Labour won more than 50% of the vote in Great Britain. In contrast, the 1955 result includes votes for the Ulster Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which at the time was one of three parties in the Conservative group in Parliament (the others being the Conservative Party itself and the small Liberal National Party, now defunct).

    As such, all though the share of the vote for the Government across the whole of the UK in 1955 was higher than in 1945, in 1945 Labour's share of the vote in Great Britain was higher. Either way, the 49.71% for Labour in the 1945 election is the highest share of the vote ever for a single political party.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of seats (ever): This distinction once again goes to the Whigs in 1832, when the party won 441 of 658 seats (67%), an overall majority of 224 seats in the House.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of seats (under equal suffrage): The biggest post-equal suffrage landslide was Tony Blair's in the 1997 general election, when the Labour Party took 418 of 659 seats (63%), an overall majority of 179. The runner-up record also belongs to Blair, when Labour was re-elected in 2001 with 413 of 659 seats (63%). Most modern political analysts consider with this or 1945 to be the biggest landslide in British history.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of actual votes cast: The most votes ever cast was for the Conservative Party under John Major at the 1992 general election, when 14,093,007 people voted for Conservative candidates. No party before or since has has that many ballots cast for it; in 1997 Labour only won 13,518,167 votes.

    Turnout in 1992 was extremely high, though, and the election very bitter and closely thought. So all though the Tories won a great many votes, this was only actually 42% of the popular vote and only translated into a very slim majority for the Conservative Party - not a real landslide.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of difference in votes: This achievement goes to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party in 1983, when it defeated Labour with 42.4% of the popular vote against 27.6% - a lead of 14.8%; all in all the Conservative Party polled 4,555,382 more votes than Labour did.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of new seats won: All though this isn't a common measure of a landslide, some people prefer to define a scale of victory by how many seats change hands. By this definition, the distinction goes to the Labour Party in 1945, which increased its representation in the House of Commons from 154 seats to 393 - an increase of 239. This was 10 years after the last election due to the Second World War however and thus a unique election; if you exclude it, then the biggest number of gains is the 216 made by the Liberal Party in 1906, or the 145 made by Labour in 1997 if only elections held under equal suffrage count.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of new votes won: The biggest vote-share increase for a single winning party is 1945, when Labour's vote increased by 11.7 percentage points. Discounting 1945 for the above reasons, then the distinction goes to the 1924 general election, when the Conservative Party had an 8.81 percentage point increase in its vote share. Counting only elections held after equal suffrage in 1929, then the honour is Tony Blair's, with Labour's 1997 increase of 8.78 percentage points.
  • Biggest landslide in terms of two-party swing: In 1945, there was a national swing of 11.7% from the Conservative Party to Labour, the biggest on record. However, this record can be discounted for the same reasons given in the previous category. If it is, then the biggest swing on record is the perfect 10% swing from the Conservatives to Labour in 1997.

    It should be noted that across all general elections from 1945 - 1997, such high swings are very rare. Across the 12 elections that happened between 1945 and 1997, only 53 out of7,631 constituency results returned a two-party swing of 10% or more. In sharp contrast, at the 1997 general election alone, there was a two-party swing of 10% or more to Labour in 364 out of 659 results.
For most people then, there are three possible choices: the 1832, 1945 or 1997 general elections, and any one of these answers is legitimate. However, there is a general consensus in modern Britain among election experts and voters alike that the 1997 election is the biggest landslide by any reasoned measure. This is largely because unlike the 1832 and 1945 elections it did not take place in any special circumstances and had no unique factors to explain the dramatic shift in voters between parties; it was held in regular times, after a regular interval, under the same electoral system with the same electorate as the election before it.


There are those who would claim that the 1931 general election holds the record for the biggest landslide by most or all measures; this is not the case, and I have purposely excluded the 1931 election in this answer for the following reasons.


In 1931, the newly formed National Government - a grand coalition between most of the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party (until 1933) and its more right-wing partner the Liberal National Party (who would join the Toriespermanently30 years later) a small section of the Labour Party and a handful of independents - won 554 of 615 (90%) seats with 67.2% of the vote.


Within this National Government, 470 seats and 55% of the votes went to the Conservative Party. This is the biggest number of seats won by any single party ever and the biggest share of the vote - however, almost all election scholars discount the 1931 election from consideration. There are two reasons for this: first, only 421 of those MPs were actually elected. In 49 constituencies won by Conservative candidates, no election was held because no other party nominated a candidate to challenge the Tory, resulting in the Conservative being automatically chosen to serve as an MP.


Second, of the 469 Conservative candidates who actually had to run for election, only 79 had to compete against at least one other National Government candidate. In 390 constituencies, the Conservatives were the only National Government partner to stand for election, usually facing just Labour and no one else. As such, in those 390 seats, the Conservatives also won the support of many Liberal Party voters (who had made up 24% of the electorate in 1929) and a small number of old Labour supporters who backed the coalition. This means the Conservative share of the vote is dramatically andartificiallyinflated in the 1931 election; when Liberals nominated more candidates against the Conservatives in 1935, the party did not fare nearly as astronomically well, despite the continuing popularity of the National Government.


As such, 1931 is discounted from the list of biggest landslides due to the unique factors behind the scale of the Tory win (and the fact the Conservatives did not form a single-party majority government after the victory).

Why are the slopes of composite volcanoes are notoriously unstable and prone to landslides?

Composite volcanoes are built up of alternating layers of hardened lava flows, volcanic ash, and tephra, making them structurally unstable. The steep slopes of composite volcanoes are prone to landslides because the loose volcanic material is easily displaced by gravity and external forces, such as earthquakes or heavy rainfall. As the volcano grows and erodes over time, the combination of gravity and the weaken material can trigger landslides on its slopes.

Astronauts on the Moon would not be able to hear a landslide because?

Sound waves only propagate through a medium, such as air or water. There is no air on the moon so they would not have been able to hear anything happening outside their spacesuits. They may, however, have been able to feel a landslide occurring simply due to the vibration in the ground.

Are landslides more frequent during or after rainy weather?

landslides are the result of a landscape not able to hold its seeping water (mainly hilly regions are affected the most), and due to the water pressure, land bursts causing water and rocks or whatever in it to flow along with rain water.

How can trees prevent landslides?

Trees can help prevent landslides by stabilizing slopes with their roots, which anchor the soil in place. The canopy of trees also intercepts rainwater, reducing the amount of water that infiltrates the soil and potentially triggers a landslide. Additionally, trees can enhance soil structure and permeability, reducing the likelihood of erosion and landslides.

Which type of current results from underwater landslides?

Turbidity currents result from underwater landslides. These currents are caused by sediment-rich water rapidly moving downslope due to gravity, carrying sediment and debris with them. Turbidity currents can be powerful and can affect marine ecosystems and underwater infrastructure.

What instruments are used to predict landslides?

  • 1) Extensometer The extensometer is used to measure relative movement by comparing the extension of two points. The extensometers are generally installed across the main scarp, at transverse crack and transverse ridges near the toe or front portion of the slide and parallel to the suspected slide movement . By arranging a series of interconnecting extensometers from the main scarp to the toe of a complex landslide that has many moving slide blocks, the resulting data could aid in clearly delineating the individual slide blocks. Measurements should be accurate to within 0.2mm, and the magnitude of the movement and daily rainfall data should be included to establish the relationship between the measurable movement and the precipitation rate.
  • 2)Tilt meter The ground tilt meter is useful for determining the deformation at the head and toe portions and sometimes along the flanks of the landslide, or to assess the possibility of future deformation. A level type tilt meter is most conventional. The tilt meter is capable of measuring the N-S and E-W components. The magnitude of tilting and tilt directions can be determined directly from the instrument panel. Furthermore, in order to determine the characteristics of the deformation, the results are shown chronologically along with the daily rainfall totals. The relationship between the magnitude of tilting and the cumulative effect of tilting, rainfall totals and groundwater levels are shown on Fig.17.

A landslide is an example of?

A landslide is an example of mass wasting, which is the downward movement of rocks and soil under the influence of gravity. It occurs when the force of gravity acting on a slope exceeds the strength of the materials holding the slope together, resulting in the sudden and rapid movement of debris downslope.

What can start a landslide?

Landslides can be triggered by heavy rainfall, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, deforestation, and human activities such as construction and mining. The loss of vegetation and changes in slope due to these factors can destabilize the ground, leading to a landslide.

Although president Richard Nixon won re-election in 1972 by one of the biggest landslides in US history his second term ended early due to his?

resignation in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal. He faced impeachment charges for his involvement in the cover-up of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. Vice President Gerald Ford succeeded him as president.

Does soil erosion cause landslides?

Water causes the soil to soften up and become slippery, causing landslides.

In addition, excessive rainfall leads tobsuper-saturated soil, which cannot hold up against gravity. Gravity in one form or another is the main cause of landslides, and too much rainfall weakens the soil's sub-structure.