Analysis of the relations between slope failure distribution and seismic ground motion during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with Mw7.9 occurred at Yingxiu County in Longmenshan thrust fault belt, southwest China, having triggered a huge amount of slope failures. This paper applied a detailed inventory with more than 190,000 slope failures and strong ground motion records of 187 seismic stations to analyze the qualitative and quantitative relations between slope failure distribution and seismic parameters. The results revealed that slope failure distribution was exponentially decreased with the increment of epicentral distance and distance from surface fault rupture; peak ground acceleration (PGA) on the hanging wall side was apparently larger than that on footwall side. Linear correlation between concentration of slope failures (LNC) and the percentage of the area affected by slope failure (LAP) and PGA was demonstrated by statistical analysis, which revealed that 0.18~0.21g horizontal PGA was the threshold value of the occurrence of slope failure. Furthermore, this paper presented an empirical model for the attenuation relation of slope failure distribution.