How does the amount of rain or ground cover affect a landslide?
1 Answer
More rain or less ground cover will more likely lead to more landslides.
Explanation:
When rain water saturates ground the ground becomes heavier and has less adhesion. This will affect the "angle of repose" of the ground, or the steepest angle that the loose particles can support independently. That means a formerly "stable" ground formation when it is dry may become unstable when it is wet, leading to a landslide.
Ground cover helps to retain moisture and reduce erosion on ground. It also helps to strengthen the adhesion of the ground through the plant root systems. Thus, ground with ground cover can absorb more water before becoming unstable than ground without the ground cover.
Ground cover will reduce the chance of a landslide due to moisture adsorption, but it cannot prevent it if the water content gets too high.
