Abstract
Since the early 1960s, near-surface seismic refraction tomography (SRT) has been extensively used as a non-invasive and cost-effective geophysical method to characterize complex geological structures for landslide investigation. This geophysical technique is able to characterize the slope material, the sliding surface's geometry, the landslide mass movement, the physical properties of media, and the water saturation effects on the slope. Therefore, this method has become an appropriate method due to the increasing progress of novel algorithms and the improvements of field-data collection systems. In this paper, we attempt to review the essential research that investigated various types of landslides influenced by water saturation and landslide materials and identified in various areas, since the year 2000. Significant conclusions obtained by applying different survey strategies and data processing algorithms in seismic refraction surveys are widely discussed concentrating on the advantages and disadvantages of this method. The main results obtained by the few available studies applying time-lapse SRT (TLSRT) are particularly analyzed.
Highlights
Landslides are the mass movement of debris, rock, and earth downslope
The current study presents the results of landslide research articles, mainly focused on detecting water contents, published in valid journals and research dissertations applying seismic refraction tomography method (SRT) since 2000
The case histories reported in this review have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the seismic refraction method focusing on seismic refraction tomography in different landslide types with various amounts of water saturation (Table 2)
Summary
Landslides are the mass movement of debris, rock, and earth downslope. They are considered one of the natural hazards in many parts of the world. Landslides cause losses of lives and properties [Perrone et al, 2014]. They are triggered by different mechanisms (e.g., typhoons, precipitation, and earthquakes) [Heincke, 2005]. The detection and characterization of landslide bodies require a multidisciplinary method based on combined geotechnical techniques, geophysical surveys, geological setting investigations, ground-based approaches, and airborne approaches. The geotechnical and geological approaches cannot be applied for investigating the subsurface structures; instead, they are typically used in investigating borehole samples and surface structures [Heincke, 2005]
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