Mass Wasting Examples.

Frank Slide, Alberta

Location: Located near the border of Alberta and British Columbia on Turtle mountain, in the Rocky Mountains. This mountain is known for it's nativity and actually got it's name from the slow rock movement. It's also near the town of Frank- an old coalmine town of the 1900's, which gives us the name “Frank Slide.”

Cause: The mountain is made up of a base of coal and rock sediments, whereas the surface is of dolomite and limestone. Gradually, water began to make its way into cracks in the bottom of the mountain, thus making it unstable.

Occurrence: The whole ordeal took place at about 4:10 am in 1903 on April 29th. The eastern side of the mountain became dislodged and sent large slabs and boulders of rock falling 701 meters down into the valley- completely blanketing it in rock. Some sections of rock were 150 meters deep, 425 meters high and about a kilometre wide.

Damage:
-76 people were killed, 24 people involved survived and only 12 bodies were found.
-The town cemetery and power plant were lost underneath the rock
-The entrance to the coalmine was covered, but 17 of the workers found their way out within a few days.
-Gold creek and Old Man River bridges were demolished.
-Created a lake from blocking the Crowsnest River
- Seven houses were lost underneath it all, outbuildings and many temporary tents were destroyed
- For a month, two miles of the CPR were covered and not in operation.

Aftermath: The government closed down the southern part of the town in 1911, in 1985 an informational centre was built to inform/ educate people about the slide and in 2005 a permanent monitoring system was constructed for the movement of the mountain.


Hope Slide, BC

Location: Located in British Columbia, East of Vancouver city, 12 miles south of the town of Hope on Johnson Peak.

Cause: On January 9, 1965, an earthquake at about3:50 am, and then another earthquake three hours later generated the slide.
Occurrence: The first earthquake generated an avalanche that blocked off the highway in the area. Three hours after the first shock the entire southeast of the mountainside crumbled. There was about 60 million cubic yards of snow, rock, mud, trees and soil tumbled 6000 feet below into the valley. The debris was 200 feet deep.
Damage:
-Outram Lake was destroyed
-two miles of highway were covered
-four people were buried and killed, but only two of the bodies were ever recovered.

Aftermath: The rocks were too deep to be removed to fix the highway, so they built around it.




Portuguese Bend, California

Location: The Palos Verdes Hill in California, Part of a peninsula.

Cause: In the 1950's, after a housing development began construction on a new road. There were many pools and underground pipes, thus meaning it had much groundwater.

Occurrence: August 17, 1956 showed the first signs of an upcoming slide. Cracks were appearing on local buildings and reappearing days after being mended. Roads began to show signs of cracking and distortion. Much of the residential area was damaged by this, 7-10 cm of movement occurred every day.

Damage: Much construction work was needed to repair the residential damage, but nobody died.

Aftermath: People no longer live in this area, and many water pipes and groundwater had to be removed.