Research on water–rock (soil) interaction by dynamic tracing method for Huangtupo landslide, Three Gorges Reservoir, PR China

Abstract

As groundwater activity develops in a landslide system, the water–rock (soil) interaction increasingly influences the development of the landslide hazard. In this paper, Huangtupo landsli de was chosen as the subject of our research, which is located beside the Three Gorges Reservoir and the deformation continued for a long time. First, based on a comprehensive field survey, ten types of bad geological elements which probably induce the deformation were collected from different parts of landslide. These include a soft rock layer, the sliding soil, a weak intercalation and the typical rock close to the slip zone. Then, to trace the internal relationships among these samples, the microstructure, chemical composition of minerals, the migration and evolution of clay minerals, also the particle size distribution characteristics of all the samples were analyzed separately. Comparison of the result shows, that the evolutionary paths are very obvious among these samples. With the activities of water–rock (soil) interaction, the formation and evolution of main bad geological elements can be summarized. Afterwards, the detailed mechanism of interaction is revealed by focusing on four samples which compose one of these three paths, using additional data from physical and mechanical tests, the study shows how water–rock (soil) interaction affects the microstructure and weakens the mechanical properties of rock and soil. The presented detailed research probes the water–rock (soil) interaction mechanism specifically for Huangtupo riverside landslide as a case study. Furthermore, the applied multi-sample dynamic tracing method is verified as a means to discover and illustrate the deformation mechanism of landslides.