ESCI 2010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Frost Heaving, Weathering, Quick Clay

• School: University of Windsor
• Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Course: ESCI 2010
• Professor: Frank Simpson

Document Summary

Force of gravity acts downward to tear the mountains down. Gravity tugs downward, causing a variety of phenomena collectively called mass wasting, or was movements: geological materials are moved downward, commonly downslope from one place to another, movement can be fast or slow. Vertical movements include surface subsidence, as from extraction of oil or ground water, or collapse of sinkholes. Landslide is a general term for the results of rapid mass movements. Mass movements occur whenever the downward pull caused by gravity overcomes the forces resisting it. A shearing stress is one tending to cause the parts of an object to slide past each other across a plane, as the plates on opposite sides of a transform fault do. Downslope pull leading to mass movements is a shearing stress: its size is related to mass of material involves and the slope angle. Shear strength the ability to resist being torn apart along a plane by the shearing stress.