Distribution of landslides in southwest New Zealand

Abstract

This study examines the size distribution of a regional medium-scale inventory of 778 landslides in the mountainous southwest of New Zealand. The spatial density of mapped landslides per unit area can be expressed as a negative power–law function of Landslide area AL spanning three orders of magnitude (∼10−2–101 km2). Although observed in other studies on landslide inventories, this relationship is surprising, given the lack of absolute ages, and thus uncertainty about the temporal observation window encompassed by the data. Large slope failures (arbitrarily defined here as having a total affected area AL>1 km2) constitute 83% of the total affected landslide area ALT. This dominance by area affects slope morphology, where large-scale landsliding reduces slope angles below the regional modal value of hillslopes, ϕmod∼39°. More numerous smaller and shallower failures tend to be superimposed on the pre-existing relief. Empirical scaling relationships show that large landslides involve >106 m3 of material. The volumes VL of individual preserved and presumably prehistoric (i.e. pre-1840) landslide deposits equate to 100–102 years of total sediment production from shallow landsliding in the respective catchments, and up to 103 years of contemporary regional sediment yield from the mountain ranges. Their presence in an erosional landscape indicates the geomorphic importance of landslides as temporary local sediment storage.