Mass wasting, or mass movement, is the downslope movement of rock, soil and debris under gravity alone, without a river, glacier or wind to carry it. Creep inches a hillside downhill over centuries, solifluction does the same over frozen ground, and a landslide, debris flow or rockfall can move the same material in seconds. Steep slopes, saturated ground, weak rock and earthquakes all raise the odds of a sudden failure. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Process Type TimescaleSeconds, in a rockfall or landslide, to hundreds of years, in slow soil creep. 1 Mass Wasting
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Steep relief, monsoon rainfall and frequent seismicity make the Himalayas one of the world's most landslide-prone mountain systems.
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1. Mass Wasting (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationDefinition section
Mass wasting, also known as mass movement, is a general term for the movement of rock or soil down slopes under the force of gravity.
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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.
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