What are landslides?

A landslide is when dirt and rocks on a hill suddenly move down like a pile of blocks falling off a table.

Imagine you have a big sandbox in your backyard. You build a tall castle with sand and little rocks. Then, it starts raining really hard, or maybe someone shakes the sandbox a lot. All of a sudden, the castle crashes down, that’s kind of what happens during a landslide!

Sometimes, after it rains for a long time, the ground gets wet and soft, like when you step on a sponge. This makes the dirt and rocks on top of the hill slide down.

Other times, something shakes the hill, like an earthquake or a big truck going by, and boom, everything starts moving!

When a landslide happens, it can cover roads, houses, or even yards with dirt and rocks. It’s like when you spill a big bucket of sand, everything gets messy, but eventually, things settle down again.

Landslides are powerful, but they’re also very real, just like the sand castle that crashes down when you least expect it!