Performances of Rockfill Dams and Deep-Seated Landslides During Earthquakes

Abstract

AbstractThere has been increasingly high intensity of acceleration ever recorded during earthquakes in recent times. In consistence with this trend several characteristics have been unearthed of performances of rock fill dams and of large-scale landslides. With due considerations to these, damage features of high rock fill dams during recent earthquakes in Japan and China are briefly introduced herein, together with those previously reported. Large-scale landslides are mostly associated with development of deep-seated slip planes which pass through layers of cohesive soil deposits existing at great depths. Two cases of massive landslides that occurred in Japan during recent earthquakes are introduced and some interpretation given on the basis of the laboratory test results on volcanic pumice soils which are considered to have induced the landslides. It is warned that borings as deep as 100–150 m need to be made not to miss presence of any cohesive soils underlying stiff soils or rocks to identify hidden danger of land sliding in the case where important facilities are constructed in the backland areas near hills or mountains.KeywordsCohesive SoilOverburden PressureConsolidation PressureSeismic CoefficientMohr CircleThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.