SLOPE

INTRODUCTION: Slopes are patches of land surfaces that are inclined from the horizontal. The
way the Earth materials move downhill is governed by the mechanics of slopes. Slopes guide the
flow of surface water downhill and fit together in stream channels. Nearly all natural surfaces slope
to some degree.
• Most hillslopes are covered with residual regolith, which grades downwards into solid
unaltered rock, known simply as bedrock.
• Sediments consists of mineral particles that are transported and deposited by fluids, which can
be water, air, or even glacial ice.
[regolith and sediments are parent materials of soil]
• Slopes aremantled with regolith which accumulates at the foot of the slopes as colluvium.
• Regolith that are transported by moving water is termed alluvium.
DEFINITIONS

1. SLOPES are defined as angular inclinations of terrain between hill tops[crest] and valley bottoms,resulting from the
combinations of many causative factors like geological structure, climates, vegetation, drainage texture and frequency,
etc. and thus form the most significant aspect of landscape assemblages
 SLOPE DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
INTRODUCTION
Theories of slope development helps us to understand how landforms develop or how slope
evolves with time.
TERMS:
1. SLOPE DECLINE- The term slope decline is used by Davis to indicate the process of slope
evolution where the steepest part of the slope declines with the development of convexity and
concavity.
2. SLOPE REPLACEMENT- Penck emphasized the word slope replacement where maximum
angles decline due to its replacement by gentle slopes from below causing a greater part of the
slope profile to become concave’
3. PARALLEL RETREAT- L.C. King discussed where maximum angle remains constant but the
concavity gradually increases in length.
 DAVIS’S THEORY
 This theory has several names- Peneplantation, slope decline theory, geographical cycle of
erosion or fluvial cycle of erosion.
 W.M Davis was an American geomorphologist who presented his concept of erosion in 1889
under the title ‘Geographical cycle of erosion’.
 This theory provided a genetic classification and systematic description of landforms .
 He defined that landforms with the passage of time undergo evolution of landforms which is
sequential in nature as sequential changes of landforms.
 Davis brought up the idea that this evolution occurs in such a way that it forms a cyclic concept
from initial to ultimate form.
 His cycle of landform was thus dynamic in nature.
 Davis argued that all the landforms can be analysed in three variables – structure, process and
stage.
1. STRUCTURE – The term includes the level of hardness, porosity, manner of deposition of
underlying rocks, folds and faults etc.
2. PROCESS – It includes all types of weathering : river, wind and glacial erosion, mass movements
etc.
3. STAGE – It means the time duration during which the processes operate on a structure. Davis
used the terminology of youth, mature and old to mark different phases of evolution of
landforms.