Chapter 15, Problem 1QR

To determine

The role of gravity in causing mass movement

Answer to Problem 1QR

Gravity is the attraction force between Earth and all the objects on Earth. This force keeps the objects together. Mass movements of various objects are due to the action of gravity such as landslides, slope failure, snow avalanches, and many more.

Explanation of Solution

Gravity is a very powerful attractive force between the objects. Gravity is responsible for the downward and upward movement of the landslides. It plays a very important role in the mass movement of objects such as downhill and uphill movement of objects; even rainfall is also caused due to gravity.

Mass movement is referred to as the movement of objects in the influence of gravity. Therefore, the downward collapse of the ground, the slope failures, and breaking of mountains are also due to gravity. It can also submerge land into the sea over time.

The law of gravitation was given by Isaac Newton, which states that the force of attraction force between two bodies is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

$\text{gravity}\text{(g)}\text{=}\frac{\text{G}\times \text{Mass1×Mass2}}{{\left(\text{distance}\right)}^{\text{2}}}$