Landslide - When gravity causes a large section of land to slide downward across other land.
   
  Landslides can happen anywhere and are triggered by rains, floods, earthquakes, and other natural events.  Humans contribute to landslides when they change the land to put in lawns, gardens, roads, and houses.
   
 

When landslides occur they can cause flooding and can pollute water.  They can carry trees and plants away with them.  All of the movement of rock, vegetation, and other objects can cause a drastic change in the landscape.  The image below shows a section of land from which all of the plant life has been removed and pushed down into a river.

When large sections of land are removed there are animals who are left homeless, and unfortunately many are also caught up in the slide and do not survive.
   
  Landslides can destroy houses, transportation routes, and utilities.  In fact, there is so much energy in a landslide, that there is not much that can stop one.  The picture to the right shows a city that has had dozens of house completely eliminated.  As you will see in the video at the bottom of this page, it does not take long for this to happen.  Even a small landslide can destroy a road or a train track in seconds.  When a landslide occurs, people can be without electricity or water for weeks.  Experts are saying that global warming will increase the number of landslides, you can read about it here.
   
  Unfortunately there is not much good that comes from a landslide.  Also, they are so powerful that there is nothing that can be done to stop one once it has started.  To try to reduce the impact of a landslide humans use technology to research and learn about the land.  It is also a good idea not to change the land, it should be left as is.  One thing that is done to attempt to control minor landslides is the use of wire fences.
   
  Below you will find a video that shows how quickly a land slide can destroy a road.  The video is from Japan.