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Failure mechanism and sedimentary characteristics of a catastrophic rockslide avalanche induced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Failure mechanism and sedimentary characteristics of a catastrophic rockslide avalanche induced... The infrastructure construction in tectonically active mountainous areas is faced with the threat of earthquake-induced rockslide-avalanches. We took the Woqian rockslide-avalanche induced by the Wenchuan earthquake near the Qinchuan active fault, Southwestern China as an instance to elucidate a unique initiation mechanism of the inward inclined bedding slope, which had a characteristic of twice destabilization in succession. The high-resolution satellite images, UAV aerial photography, field investigation, and numerical simulation were conducted to reveal the failure processes. The results suggested that (1) the long-term headward erosion of the gully runoff had locally exposed the unconformity contact plane within the strata, which evolved as a part of the sliding plane; (2) the seismic loading produced a rapid shear strain increment on the unconformity plane; (3) the brittle rupture occurred along the sliding plane at the bottom of the sliding source I developed at 6 s after the seismic wave arrival; (4) as a “resistance barrier”, the sliding source I first collapsed and most of it accumulated at a short distance; (5) the sliding source II subsequently slid along the apparent dip of the bedding plane and then entrained the deposits of the source I into a catastrophic rock avalanche. The failure mechanism of such carbonaceous bedding slopes with similar geological conditions could provide an insight into the early risk recognition of potential rockslides and the safe site selection of infrastructures. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Landslides Springer Journals

Failure mechanism and sedimentary characteristics of a catastrophic rockslide avalanche induced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
ISSN
1612-510X
eISSN
1612-5118
DOI
10.1007/s10346-022-01955-y
Publisher site
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Abstract

The infrastructure construction in tectonically active mountainous areas is faced with the threat of earthquake-induced rockslide-avalanches. We took the Woqian rockslide-avalanche induced by the Wenchuan earthquake near the Qinchuan active fault, Southwestern China as an instance to elucidate a unique initiation mechanism of the inward inclined bedding slope, which had a characteristic of twice destabilization in succession. The high-resolution satellite images, UAV aerial photography, field investigation, and numerical simulation were conducted to reveal the failure processes. The results suggested that (1) the long-term headward erosion of the gully runoff had locally exposed the unconformity contact plane within the strata, which evolved as a part of the sliding plane; (2) the seismic loading produced a rapid shear strain increment on the unconformity plane; (3) the brittle rupture occurred along the sliding plane at the bottom of the sliding source I developed at 6 s after the seismic wave arrival; (4) as a “resistance barrier”, the sliding source I first collapsed and most of it accumulated at a short distance; (5) the sliding source II subsequently slid along the apparent dip of the bedding plane and then entrained the deposits of the source I into a catastrophic rock avalanche. The failure mechanism of such carbonaceous bedding slopes with similar geological conditions could provide an insight into the early risk recognition of potential rockslides and the safe site selection of infrastructures.

Journal

Landslides – Springer Journals

Published: Jan 1, 2023

Keywords: Earthquake-induced rockslide; Rockslide-avalanche; Failure mechanism; Carbonate rock; Finite difference method

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