TERM OF THE WEEK
lateral spread: [mass movement] A category of mass movement processes, associated sediments (lateral spread deposit) or resultant landforms characterized by a very rapid spread dominated by lateral movement in a soil or fractured rock mass resulting from liquefaction or plastic flow of underlying materials; also called spread. Types of lateral spreads can be specified based on the dominant particle size of sediments (i.e., debris spread, earth spread, rock spread ( Jackson, 1997; Schoeneberger and Wysocki, personal communication, 2013; Varnes, 1978). Compare fall, topple, slide, flow, complex landslide, landslide.