Sometimes a mass of earth saturated with water slides down a hill slope causing landslides. There are many varieties of landslides depending on the mass, sliding and the distance traversed by it. Those which move only through short distances are called slumps. When millions of cubic of material moves through thousands of feet distance, they are known as rock slides. When under gravity rock material falls down a high cliff, debris fall or rockfall occurs.

Effects of landslides : Landslides produce great scars on the sides of mountains, and sometimes give a rippled shape to the hillside on account of mixed rock slumps on the back slope. Landslides and rockslides are of frequent occurrence in many mountains. In 1957, such a huge landslide came down in Kashmir. The traffic was suspended for many days. Recently a landslide in Tehri-Garhwal region occurred due to cloud burst.