Landslides are a common phenomenon in areas with uneven terrain, especially on slopes. This process can occur in places where there is no human occupation, however, they are more common in land where there was removal of the original vegetation cover, which is responsible for the consistency of the soil and which prevents, through the roots, the drainage of the waters.
Due to the fact that Brazil has a predominance of tropical climate, there are large rainfall in summer, which corresponds to the the rainy season, with that the slopes would naturally be places of risk, since they are subject to the risk of landslides. Earth.
When precipitation occurs, the soil absorbs a portion of the water, however, another part moves in the form of runoff on the surface of the land, the part of water that infiltrates the ground is confronted with some types of impermeable rocks, so the water does not find a way and starts to accumulate in one place, thus making the soil saturated with moisture that it cannot support and breaks up, triggering landslides on the slopes to the base of the hills.
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The reasons that trigger this process are linked to the form of relief, geological structure of the land, in addition to human actions that intensify the landslides: removal of vegetation cover from areas of uneven relief, housing in inappropriate places, offering favorable conditions for development of this phenomenon.
Sliding is a process that can take place anywhere in the world. In Brazil, the people who live in urban centers and who suffer the most are those with low purchasing power, as the areas of the risk they live in are one of the only alternatives for this class to reside, since they are places of little value commercial.
Every year, during the rainy season, they broadcast news of floods and landslides in marginalized areas, causing losses and deaths in several Brazilian metropolises.
Eduardo de Freitas
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FREITAS, Eduardo de. "Slope Slips"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/deslizamentos-encostas.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
