This book is dedicated to Professor Anderson.
Thank you for making me love science. For the first time, I not only enjoy nature but I understand it too. You are awesome!
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Hi everyone! My name is Bruce the rock. I live here on the mountain with the trees and my rock friends and family. It is a nice and quiet life. But every once in a while, the ground moves beneath us and we all tumble down the mountain. Do you what this is called?
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I had questions that needed answering and I knew exactly who to ask. My rock friend, Phil! Phil knows all about science. He explained that these natural disasters are called landslides. Landslides occur when trees, debris, and rocks like us, move down a slope. But what causes landslides?
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There are many causes of landslides. Gravity is the main reason. Sometimes, gravity is stronger than us rocks and the other earth materials that make up a slope. When this happens, the gravitational pull causes us to move downhill and there is mass wasting. But there's more!
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In addition to the force of gravity, soil erosion, heavy rainfall, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and human activities such as mining can also lead to landslides.
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Wow! Now I know what landslides are and how they are formed. But I still have some questions. When these landslides occur, sometimes I fall quickly down the slope and sometimes I fall slowly. Sometimes there is mud and other times there is just debris. Why aren't all landslides the same?
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That's a great question, Bruce!T here are many different types of landslides. Some move extremely fast at a whopping 200 miles per hour. That's as fast as a super fast race car zooming around the track! The normal speed of a landslide is 30-50 miles per hour. That's about the speed your parents drive when they take you to school or our to ice cream.
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The fastest landslide is called rock falls. Big rocks like us and other boulders separate from steep slopes or cliffs and roll on down. Rock falls can happen when pieces of ice expand in joints and fractures.
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Rock avalanches are extra cool. Have you ever felt like you were flying during a landslide? This is because during rock avalanches, us rocks can actually go airborne. Flying rocks! Sometimes, we stay on the ground the whole time. This is called a rock avalanche chute.
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Rock slides are slower movements of individual rocks tumbling down a slide surface. Usually, this occurs on really steep slopes. We experienced a rock slide way before you were born.
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Slumping occurs when a group of earth materials move together down a surface that is usually shaped like a giant spoon. Do you remember a while back when we used to have a beautiful view of the water? That is because slumping usually happens along beach cliffs and stream valleys.
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Flow happens when mud and other earth materials are covered with water and all slide down together. Remember the last time we all got so dirty during a landslide? That is because it was flow!
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Soil creep is the most harmless type of landslide. This happens when soil moves slowly down a surface. When the soil moves down they can actually tilt trees and telephone poles! Check out that tree over there! That is bent because of the recent soil creep.
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This book is dedicated to Professor Anderson.
Thank you for making me love science. For the first time, I not only enjoy nature but I understand it too. You are awesome!
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Hi everyone! My name is Bruce the rock. I live here on the mountain with the trees and my rock friends and family. It is a nice and quiet life. But every once in a while, the ground moves beneath us and we all tumble down the mountain. Do you what this is called?
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