Mass wasting

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.

Types of mass wasting include creep, solifluction, rockfalls, debris flows, and landslides, each with its own characteristic features, and taking place over timescales from seconds to hundreds of years.

Mass wasting occurs on both terrestrial and submarine slopes, and has been observed on Earth, Mars, Venus, Jupiter's moon Io, and on many other bodies in the Solar System.

Mitigation methods include slope stabilization, construction of walls, catchment dams, or other structures to contain rockfall or debris flows, afforestation, or improved drainage of source areas.

Mass wasting is a general term for any process of erosion that is driven by gravity and in which the transported soil and rock is not entrained in a moving medium, such as water, wind, or ice.

[3] Many forms of mass wasting are recognized, each with its own characteristic features, and taking place over timescales from seconds to hundreds of years.

[2] Based on how the soil, regolith or rock moves downslope as a whole, mass movements can be broadly classified as either creeps or landslides.

The surface soil can migrate under the influence of cycles of freezing and thawing, or hot and cold temperatures, inching its way towards the bottom of the slope forming terracettes.

It takes place on moderate slopes, relatively free of vegetation, that are underlain by permafrost and receive a constant supply of new debris by weathering.

[12] Submarine mass wasting is particularly common along glaciated coastlines where glaciers are retreating and great quantities of sediments are being released.

[14] Mass wasting also occurs in the equatorial regions of Mars, where stopes of soft sulfate-rich sediments are steepened by wind erosion.

[18] Soil creep is rarely apparent but can produce such subtle effects as curved forest growth and tilted fences and telephone poles.