Earthflow vs. Mudflow

Earthflownoun

A downslope viscous flow of fine-grained materials that have been saturated with water, moving under the pull of gravity.

Earthflownoun

Motion of a saturated mass of fine-grained sediment down a slope, especially when made fluid by excessive rainfall; an instance of this.

Earthflow

An earthflow (earth flow) is a downslope viscous flow of fine-grained materials that have been saturated with water and moves under the pull of gravity. It is an intermediate type of mass wasting that is between downhill creep and mudflow.

Mudflownoun

A type of landslide characterized by large flows of mud and water.

Mudflownoun

The dried-out product of such a flow.

Mudflownoun

a fluid or hardened stream or avalanche of mud.

Mudflow

A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving of debris that has become partially or fully liquified by the addition of significant amounts of water to the source material.Mudflows contain a significant proportion of clay, which makes them more fluid than debris flows; thus, they are able to travel farther and across lower slope angles. Both types are generally mixtures of various kinds of materials of different sizes, which are typically sorted by size upon deposition.Mudflows are often called mudslides, a term applied indiscriminately by the mass media to a variety of mass wasting events.