Week 8 Mass Wasting Hazards
Mass Wasting in the Dominican Republic Hazard Level: HIGH Mass wasting as defined in Natural Hazards "refers to a rapid downslope movement of rock or soil as a more or less coherent mass." We commonly hear terms like "landslides" and "rockslides" which are referring to mass wasting. There are various types of landslides such as; falling, sliding, slumping, or creep. These various types of landslides are defined by the movement of the slope and can be a combination of those types. Landslides, as well as rockslides do not require a trigger to occur. Gravity plays a major role in landslides, in addition to the slope and topography, climate, vegetation, water and time. Landslides are considered to be a high hazard level in the Dominican Republic. According to Think Hazard by the GFDRR, some major factors that lead to this high hazard in the Dominican Republic are the rainfall patterns, terrain slope, geology, land cover and earthquakes. All of this being