By investigating typical earthquake-induced landslides in the field,the landslides triggered by 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake were classified into 4 kinds of basic types: slide type landslides,slide-flow type landslides,fall-slide type landslides and fall-eject-slide type landslides according to movement characteristics and modes of the landslides.Moreover,according to the characteristics of sliding and material composition of the landslides and macro disrupted degree of sliding mass,sliding landslides were classified into 3 kinds of secondary types: coherent landslides,disrupted landslides and debris landslides.On the basis,basic characteristics,especially movement characteristics and processes for all types of landslides was thoroughly analyzed by different types of typical landslides cases.It is not only helpful to comprehensively understanding the types and characteristics of earthquake-induced landslides,but also can provide a mitigation and prevention basis for future earthquake-induced landslides.