during a mudflow i know that the rocks and debris containing large amounts of water flow down caused by gravity. Why does it flow faster then earth i don't understand how it could have that much force.

-- kristi pecora (pecora04@hotmail.com), April 18, 2001

Answers

it flows faster because for some reason that i am not sure of water flows easier than dirt probably due to less friction. the water soaked earth in a mud flow is able to flow fast than just regular dirt because there is less fricction on the water soaked dirt and it is able to flow over the dirt and eath easier than if it was not to contain any water.

-- tina southwell (tsouthwe@oswego.edu), April 20, 2001.

The mud flow takes place when the earth (soil)is saturated with water (more probably in sandy and silty soil).It is known fact that when the soil is saturated with the water its overall weight increases in the mean time the frictoinal resistance at the failure plain decreases in large extent.Due to this reason the small force is sufficient for the large drift.Thus the earth will have the higher velocity when saturated then at dry state.For your understnding earth will not have the large force but the frictonal force will be decreased which on the other hand increases the drift force.

-- binod kafle (binodko@hotmail.com), August 11, 2002.