Slope Tectonics

Book excerpt: Usually geomorphology, structural geology and engineering geology provide descriptions of slope instability in quite distinctive ways. This new research is based on combined approaches to providing an integrated view of the operative slope processes. 'Slope Tectonics' is the term adopted here to refer to those deformations that are induced or fully controlled by the slope morphology, and that generate features which can be compared to those created by tectonic activity. Such deformation can be induced by the stress field in a slope which is mainly controlled by gravity, topography and the geological setting created by the geodynamic context. The content of this book includes slope-deformation characterization using morphology and evolution, mechanical behaviour of the material, modes of failure and collapse, influence of lithology and structural features, and the role played by controlling factors.