What Landforms Are Results of Mass Wasting?

Mass wasting helps shape Earth’s surface by changing or destroying existing landforms and constructing new landforms. For example, landslides and rock falls can transform a steep slope into a gentle slope, or a gentle slope into a steep slope as material moves downhill. The material that has eroded can pile up to form new landforms like talus slopes.

A mudflow carries a mixture of soil and water away from one hillside and deposits it in another place. Depending on how thick the flow is and how much material moves, the mudflow could spread out to form part of a flat plain, or it could pile up to form small hills. Fast-moving flows can even carve out other landforms, like canyons, as they move.

Many landforms associated with mass wasting are found in rugged mountains, steep volcanoes, and along canyons and coastlines. As mountains like the Himalayas grow and become steeper, gravity pulls rocks down, creating sharp peaks.

Debris flows on volcanoes leave valleys on the sides of the volcano and form new hills at the bottom. Running water and gravity work together to widen river gorges and move coastlines. Water erodes the base of the cliff, while gravity causes it to collapse. Over time, canyons get wider, and coastlines recede or move landward.

Mass wasting also plays a role in the formation of landforms far from where the mass wasting originally occurred. For example, when a cliff collapses into the sea, the material is pounded into smaller pieces by waves and then carried by currents to form beaches along another part of the coastline. When a steep slope collapses in the mountains, material can be carried in streams and then rivers all the way to the ocean, where it is deposited to form a delta.

Erosion by gravity can have a substantial impact on river ecosystems. Sediments can be deposited at the inner edge of meanders, or twists, in rivers. This edge can become so full of sediment that it becomes clogged. Eventually, it is cut off from the river. The new body of water is called an oxbow lake. After the lake forms, the river has one less meander. A river with fewer meanders flows faster.