Disaster chains initiated by the Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

The Wenchuan earthquake caused numerous landslides and avalanches, which initiated causal chains of geological and ecological disasters. Field investigations and field experiments were performed in the earthquake area in 2008 and 2009 to study the disaster chains. Four types of disaster chains have been identified and seven cases have been studied. In the disaster chains, each episode was caused by the previous episode, or the causal episode. In the first chain, landslide created a quake lake, which was followed by landslide dam failure flood and very intensive fluvial process. The last episode of the chain was loss of habitats and destruction of aquatic biocommunities. The Tangjiashan and Huoshigou landslides initiated such a type of disaster chain. The second chain consisted of landslide, drainage system burying, debris flows, and development of new drainage system and intensive fluvial process. The Wenjiagou landslide initiated such a type of disaster chain. The third chain consisted of avalanches, grain erosion (unusual erosion of bare rocks due to insolation and temperature change), slope debris flows, and flying stones. Many such disaster chain events occurred on the mountains by the Minjiang River section from Yingxiu to Wenchuan. The fourth chain has only two episodes: avalanches during the earthquake occurring on elevation between 100 and 800 m from the riverbed, and rock falls or new avalanches due to increased slope angle of high mountains (400–1,500 m from the riverbed). The Chediguan bridge was broken by such avalanches in July 2009, in which six were killed and more than 20 were injured. For all the disaster chains, the volume of mass movement in each episode was much less than the causal episode (previous episode). In other words, there was an attenuation along the causal chains. The attenuation factor is defined as the ratio of the volume of mass movement or affected area in one episode of a chain to the volume or affected area in the causal episode. The study concluded that the attenuation factor ranges from 0.02 to 0.3. Macroinvertebrates were used as indicator species to evaluate the ecological effect of the disaster chains. The number of species was greatly reduced by the causal chains, although the river section was not directly affected by landslides.