Recently, Sochi has been a hotspot for a massive mud flow, a part of mass wasting. Mud flows or mass wasting occurs because of “steep slopes and excessive watering”. Slopes in the region eroded over time, thus causing the phenomena. As you can see in the video, the type of mass wasting taking place is an unsorted flow with some debris of wood and rocks.Which may have been the result of too much rain. This causes a great impact on the people living in the area because it can damage their house, and kill people who are not smart and are not aware of what is happening. Some try to beat the mudflow, but little do they know, it is coming down fast and strong.
The video is mostly in Russian, though the person recording is speaking English. Also sorry for the PG-13 language. But it is a great example of a mud/debris flow. Pay close attention to the dog that jumps in. He is lucky to get out.
The southwest part of Russia (Sochi) is rich in entisols and mollisol soil types. Entisols is a young soil and mollisols are “rich in organic matter”. Mollisols soil types are described as a calcification process. This means the region does not get enough precipitation, which categorizes it as an “arid region”.
 | |
| The Caucasus Mountains. This shows the mollisol soil type that is found mostly in the southwest part of Russia.http://georgien.blogspot.com/2009/10/adventure-off-road-in-caucasus.html |
Work cited:
http://fast.ucdenver.edu/case/1202/Battle/Destroy/MassWasting/MassWasting.htm
http://georgien.blogspot.com/2009/10/adventure-off-road-in-caucasus.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg2lSEml99g
