The East Abbotsford translational block landslide failed suddenly on 8 August, 1979, after months and probably years of slowly accelerating movement. A displacement of about 50 m occurred on a bedding plane dipping 7°, about 30 m below ground surface, at or very near the contact between two formations.

The complex graben formed around the head of the landslide is a small scale example of extensional (rift) tectonics. A wedge and prism model is developed to fit the geometry, and meet the constraints of preserving the cross-sectional area and stratal length of the beds involved and also to account for the sequential retrogressive failures of the trailing edge of the sliding block.

Reconstruction of the failure sequence at the toe shows the compressional zone to be dominated by overthrusting on upward sloping surfaces or ramps, with subsidiary backthrusting and buckling.

The energy expended in overthrusting, coupled with the decrease in mass (and hence driving force) resulting from the retrogressive spalling of the trailing edge of the slide block, indicates that the phase of rapid movement was accompanied by a sudden decrease in resistance on the failure surface for a movement of 50 m to have occurred.

Both the rift and thrust structures associated with the landslide have large scale tectonic analogues.