Find a safe place to pull off for your vehicle. This area changes often so please do not put yourself at risk for it
Logging Tasks - To log an Earthcache you need to email/or message the following to me.
- Tell me who you are with if you are logging for more than one person. Everyone has to have visited the site.
- Does the road appear to be flat and even (it was constructed that way)? What Mass wasting would describe why it is not?
- Looking to the south on a hillside you can see another type. What type would you say that was? and why?
- Would you say (for both the earlier two locations) that the ground has stopped moving, or still moving? Why?
You can stop at a number of locations along the side of the road to answer these.
The road and area here has had a number of problems over the decades because the ground is moving. This movement is referred to as Mass wasting. Why? Geologists like big terms to confuse other people? Who knows. However they are dealing with a Dirt, rock, sediment, etc (Mass ) that moves (Wastes) .
This chart shows a number of different ways that this takes place.
I made the chart above, as a compilation of a few charts that I have seen. to help describe and illustrate different types.
The movements are generally classified by the speed, the material, and why it is moving.
Rock vs sediment
Things are very different based on the material that is being moved. A solid rock that topples is going to take more energy to break ofg a hill, than the same weight of loose rocks, or dirt in the same location.
Wet vs Dry
Similary things move easier when wet. Especially when it is finer material. Water can saturate the ground to cause the soil to begin to move. A gravel in the same location, usually does not have the same problem. The water will flow out, while soil retains that, the water acting as a grease to allow it to start to move. This is why you see more movement in wet summers.
Steep slopes
Most things on a slope will be at rest. The "angle of repose" is the steepest angle that things can sit on before gravity will cause it to move down the hill. However add enough water and things may begin the move. The vast amount of weight on a hillside, may start moving because deeper down there is a layer of soil saturated with water.
When movement begins on a slope, it can develop a momentum that will cause more material to be picked up and dragged along with it. Avalanches, debris flows, etc.
Slopes that are flatter will tend to take more weight, or a steeper slope and they will begin to creep along. Causing a slow deformation over time.