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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms pp 1–10Cite as

Mass Wasting

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Definition

A broad class of features formed by the movement of rock or debris (on Earth, soil) downslope controlled by gravity. Transport of rock or debris by a transporting medium (e.g., wind, water, ice) is not included (e.g., eolian deposits; distributary system deposits), but flows with high fluid content where the pore fluid mediates (but does not completely dominate) grain-to-grain interactions are included in this category.

Note: The term “landslide” in the strict sense refers to sliding movements only ( slide ) and this is how we have generally used it within this section. However, in a broader sense – as proposed by IAEG (1990) – it is defined as “the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth (soil) down a slope (under the influence of gravity).”

Synonyms

Downslope movement; Landslide; Mass movement; Slope failure

Description

Feature morphology can most simply be divided into a source region (zone of erosion) and a deposit (zone of accumulation). Sometimes these two regions...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jessica Watkins

  2. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Jessica Watkins
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  2. Henrik Hargitai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessica Watkins .

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Watkins, J., Hargitai, H. (2014). Mass Wasting. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_227-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_227-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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