Abstract
Mobility is an important element of landslide hazard and risk assessments yet has been seldom studied for shallow landslides and debris flows in tropical environments. In September 2017, Hurricane Maria triggered > 70,000 landslides across Puerto Rico. Using aerial imagery and a lidar digital elevation model (DEM), we mapped and characterized the mobility of debris slides and flows in four different geologic materials: (1) mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone; (2) submarine basalt and chert; (3) marine volcaniclastics; and (4) granodiorite. We used the ratio of landslide-fall height (H) to travel length (L), H/L, to assess the mobility of landslides in each material. Additionally, we differentiated between landslides with single and multiple source areas and landslides that either did or did not enter drainages. Overall, extreme rainfall contributed to the mobility of landslides during Hurricane Maria, and our results showed that the mobility of debris slides and flows in Puerto Rico increased linearly as a function of the number of source areas that coalesced. Additionally, landslides that entered drainages were more mobile than those that did not. We found that landslides in soils developed on marine volcaniclastics were the most mobile and landslides in soils on submarine basalt and chert were the least mobile. While landslides were generally small (< 100 m2) and displayed a wide range of H/L values (0.1–2), coalescence increased the mobility of landslides that transitioned to debris flows. The high but variable mobility of landslides that occurred during Hurricane Maria and the associated hazards highlight the importance of characterizing and understanding the factors influencing landslide mobility in Puerto Rico and other tropical environments.
Highlights
Landslide hazards are largely controlled by the size and location of initiation and the total distance traveled after initiation
In GRA, 8.4% of the formation area was affected by landslides, while 3.7%, 3.8%, and 5.7% of the formation areas were affected by landslides in MSS, submarine basalt and chert (SBC), and marine volcaniclastics (MVC), respectively (Table 2)
Our study highlights the wide range of mobility that landslides can have during torrential rainstorms in Puerto Rico and demonstrates that mobility is influenced by rainfall, geologic materials, the number of landslide source areas that coalesce, and drainage network interactions, which affect entrainment and coincidence with floodwaters
Summary
Landslide hazards are largely controlled by the size and location of initiation and the total distance traveled (mobility) after initiation. Landslide mobility can be controlled by intrinsic factors such as material and pore-pressure characteristics (e.g., Terzaghi 1950; Sassa 1985; Iverson 1997; Davies et al 1999; Iverson et al 2015; Manzanal et al 2016) or source area volume (e.g., Heim 1932; Corominas 1996; Legros 2002). Rainfall and flooding during prolonged storm events such as hurricanes can enhance mobility by increasing the water content of landslides
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