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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

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.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of landslide?

Advantages of quarrying:

  • using extrcted material, thus enhancing trade
  • creating jobs for people around
  • creating new habitats
  • sometimes new roads are built, first to transportthe machinaries and then the extrcted material, which are then left to be used locally
  • after the removal of extracted material , the site can be used for leisure and sports activities

Disadvantages of qurraying:

  • air pollution
  • noise pollution
  • destruction of habitats
  • destruction of natural beauty
  • producing waste, creating a menace if not disposed off wisely
  • contamination of water
  • production of bacteria, germs and insects around which can be harmful for people
  • often leaves an open pit that can become a dumping ground for others
  • affects the weather of the surrounding

Why do people live in places in with landslides?

Sometimes persons do not place themselves in such locations. However some do, others that don't , usually are affected as a result of some tectonic activity or eventual slope instability that results in landslides . Eg earthquakes prone or slopes affected by deforestation.

How are landslides formed by heavy rainfall?

Heavy rainfall saturates the soil, making it more prone to movement. This causes the soil to become unstable and eventually gives way, leading to a landslide. The additional weight of the water can also trigger slope failure.

What were the causes and effects of the Aberfan landslide in 1966?

The Aberfan landslide (also known as the Aberfan disaster) occurred in the village of Aberfan, in Wales on Friday 21 October 1966.

A spoil heap from the Merthyr Vale Colliery which was deposited on the side of Mynydd Merthyr above the village primary school collapsed leading to the formation of a debris flow which ran at very high speed down the hill side destroying a number of houses and ultimately burying the school in over 30 feet (10 metres) of thick mud and rubble. This resulted in the deaths of 116 children and 28 adults.

It was caused by the tipping of spoil onto a site on the hill side where water out flowed in a series of springs. There had been a period of heavy rainfall in the days before the landslide which had caused water to build up within the colliery debris pile. This acted to increase the pore water pressure within the material (this acts to force soil or rock particles apart, causing a decrease in the effective stress of the material essentially making it weaker) and ultimately resulted in a circular slip failure occurring in the slope. This acted to drive up the pore pressure even further causing the fine grained material in the debris pile to effectively liquefy and it was this material that flowed at high speed down the slope carrying larger debris with it that caused the destruction in the village.

The inquiry into the disaster ultimately found that the cause was due to the lack of control over the tipping of debris and a lack of understanding of slope stability issues by the mining engineers running the colliery who concentrated on the safety of the under ground excavations rather than the debris piles produced by mining. Previous instability in the spoil piles had been ignored.

As a result of the disaster and the ensuing enquiry, new legislation was created to remedy the absence of laws and regulations governing the safety and stability of mine and quarry waste tips.

The disaster also had a significant impact on the small community of Aberfan. Local doctors reported an increase in depression and alcohol related health problems after the disaster.

For more information, please see the related link.

What is the study of landslides called?

The study of landslides is called "Landslide Geology" or "Landslide Science." It involves investigating the causes, mechanisms, and impacts of landslides on the environment and human activities. Scientists in this field work to understand and mitigate the risks associated with landslides.

How are landslides helpful and harmful?

Well, I myself am trying to find out why they are helpful, but landslides are harmful because they can cause injuries, death, buried houses, and people being handicapped and buried alive. Hope that helps! :)

How are landslides different from mudflows?

Landslides involve the downward movement of rock, soil, and debris on a slope or cliff, while mudflows are fast-moving mixtures of water, rock, and debris that flow downhill. Landslides typically occur on steeper slopes, while mudflows can occur on gentler slopes and are more fluid-like in their movement. Mudflows are more likely to be triggered by heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt, while landslides can be triggered by a variety of factors such as earthquakes or volcanic activity.

Is a landslide chemical or physical?

Landslide is a physical phenomenon (geological).

Which erosional force acts alone to produce avalanches and landslides?

Gravity acts alone to produce avalanches and landslides. When the force of gravity exceeds the strength of the material holding it in place on a slope, the material will move downhill in the form of an avalanche or landslide.

How do you use landslide in a sentence?

After heavy rain, a landslide blocked the road and caused a traffic jam.

What is most common type of landslide?

The most common type of landslide is a debris flow, which is a fast-moving landslide consisting of a mixture of soil, rock, and water. Debris flows occur when heavy rainfall or rapid snowmelt saturates the ground, causing loose material to flow downhill. They can happen in areas with steep slopes and inadequate drainage.

What effect do landslides have on landforms?

Landslides can significantly alter landforms by changing the shape, slope, and elevation of the affected area. They can lead to the creation of new landforms such as scarps, terraces, and debris cones. Landslides also contribute to the overall shaping of the landscape by redistributing sediments and altering drainage patterns.