Rockslide

A rapid downslope movement of rock fragments or bedrock masses under gravity. It occurs when a slope loses stability and rock moves along or breaks from a surface.

Shear strength: The maximum stress a material can withstand before sliding or breaking along a surface. A rockslide begins when driving stresses exceed the resisting strength of rock or discontinuities.
Earthquake: The shaking of the ground caused by sudden release of energy within Earth’s crust. Seismic shaking can dislodge blocks or initiate failure on an unstable slope.
Hope Slide: A 1965 rockslide in British Columbia that killed four people and buried part of the Crowsnest Highway. This well-documented Canadian failure illustrates a rapid rockslide with deadly impacts.
Landslide hazard: The potential for landslides to occur in a given area and cause harm. Rockslide assessments estimate where failures may occur and how severe they could be.
Rock avalanche: A highly fragmented, rapidly moving mass of rock that travels downslope over a large distance. A rockslide may fragment and develop into the faster, more mobile flow-like motion of an avalanche.
Slope stability: The condition of a slope in which resisting forces balance or exceed forces driving downslope movement. Rockslide hazard depends on whether the slope remains in mechanical equilibrium.
Freeze-thaw weathering: The breakdown of rock caused when water repeatedly freezes and thaws in cracks. Repeated freezing can widen fractures that later define a sliding block.
Frank Slide: A 1903 rock avalanche that swept down Turtle Mountain and devastated part of Frank, Alberta. Its destruction demonstrates how a large slope failure can overrun a settlement.
Rockfall protection: Engineering measures that reduce damage from falling or moving rock, including barriers, nets, and catch ditches. Some measures used against rockfall also intercept or contain small rockslides.
Debris flow: A rapid flow of water-saturated sediment and debris down a channel or slope. Debris flows behave as wet granular flows, whereas rockslides move mainly as solid rock masses.

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Submarine landslideCompared with: A rockslide emphasizes coherent rock movement, unlike many sediment-rich submarine failures.