Volcanic landslide

The rounded hills of the complexly deformed tessera, or tile-like, terrain on Venus have probably been modified by numerous landslides.

[6] At volcanoes, the term landslide is commonly used for slope movements with shear and displacement in a relatively narrow zone.

Debris flows, in contrast, owe much of their behaviour to excess pore-water pressure and a pore fluid that is viscous and contains fine sediment.

[2] Landslides that remove a large portion of a volcanic cone may abruptly decrease pressure on shallow magmatic and hydrothermal systems, which can generate explosions ranging from a small steam explosion to large steam and magma-driven directed blasts.

[23] Historically, the most deadly volcanic landslide occurred in 1792 when sliding debris from Mount Mayuyama in Japan slammed into the Ariake Sea and generated a tsunami that reached the opposite shore and killed nearly 15,000 people.

[27][28] In 1979, a landslide from the Indonesian volcano Iliwerung produced 9 m-high (30 ft) waves that killed more than 500 people.

[30] The waves struck about 313 km (194 mi) of coastline with various heights, killing at least 373 people and damaging many buildings.

[31][32] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Geological Survey.