Landslides/Local Planning Emma Davis Period: 2

What are Landslides? A landslide is when soil breaks away from the ground under Iit and " slides" down the hillside. Land slides can be caused in many different ways like volcanoes, earthquakes, and more. They can also be caused by something man made.

Roads Causing Landslides Recently in North Salt Lake Utah region, two landslides occurred. In the Springfield area of the region had a landslide that destroyed homes and left other people not able to sell their home. People said in the surrounding area said the soil was firm until a new road was built around the hill. There are other examples of man made things that can cause a landslide. According to Fred Pierce "The giant Three Gorges reservoir will place thousands of the residents at risk from landslides.

Removal of Trees According to Bob Woods" Changing a hillside by removing trees can create a landslide risk." A land slide happened in California because the residents removed trees from the hill. The roots of the trees held the soil and when they are gone there is nothing to stop the soil from moving. But landslides do not harm people, just destroy property and block roads.

What We Should Do To stop landslides from happening we need to take more precautions. Before building roads we need to check what it might do to the hill beside it. We need to not remove so many trees for a hill and if we do remove trees we need to plant more to keep the soil in one place. The best thing to do is to not ignore the fact and prepare for when a landslide might happen.

Citations Scholastic Superscience;Oct 2011,Vol. 13 Issue 2,p8,3p,4color photos. Earthquakes & Volcanoes,1992,Vol.23 Issue 2,p52,6p,3black & White Photographs. Newscientist;3/2/2002,Vol. 173 Issue 2332,p11,1/3p,1Color Photograph. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6th Edition. Current Science (60113891); 6/10/2011,Vol. 100 Issue 11,p1617-1620 4p.