Abstract
In this study, we proposed three optimized models for calculating the total volume of landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Mw 7.9 earthquake. First, we calculated the volume of each deposit of 1,415 landslides triggered by the quake based on pre- and post-quake DEMs in 20 m resolution. The samples were used to fit the conventional landslide “volume-area” power law relationship and the 3 optimized models we proposed, respectively. Two data fitting methods, i.e. log-transformed-based linear and original data-based nonlinear least square, were employed to the 4 models. Results show that original data-based nonlinear least square combining with an optimized model considering length, width, height, lithology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and slope aspect shows the best performance. This model was subsequently applied to the database of landslides triggered by the quake except for two largest ones with known volumes. It indicates that the total volume of the 196,007 landslides is about 1.2 × 1010 m3 in deposit materials and 1 × 1010 m3 in source areas, respectively. The result from the relationship of quake magnitude and entire landslide volume related to individual earthquake is much less than that from this study, which reminds us the necessity to update the power-law relationship.
Highlights
Landslides by major events, such as the 2008 Wenchuan, China3–5, 2010 Yushu, China19, 2010 Haiti8, 2013 Lushan, China[9] earthquakes
This optimized model is subsequently used to the database of all landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake, yielding the total volume of landslides triggered by the quake about 1.2 × 1010 m3 for deposit materials and 1 × 1010 m3 in scar areas
The areas without data were filled by the linear interpolation method and the pre-and post-quake DEMs were employed to derive DEM differentials, which were used for calculating individual landslide volumes of deposit areas and scar areas
Summary
Landslides by major events, such as the 2008 Wenchuan, China3–5, 2010 Yushu, China19, 2010 Haiti8, 2013 Lushan, China[9] earthquakes. The results show that the original data-based nonlinear least square regression considering landslide geometry parameters, topography, lithology, and PGA has the lowest standard deviation and presents the best performance This optimized model is subsequently used to the database of all landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake, yielding the total volume of landslides triggered by the quake about 1.2 × 1010 m3 for deposit materials and 1 × 1010 m3 in scar areas. According to the power law relationship between landslide area and frequency related to the Wenchuan quake[21], the Daguangbao and Wenjiagou landslides, the two largest landslides triggered by the quake, present two outliers due to their extremely large volumes[21] They were compulsory excluded from the sample set.
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