Soil slips on weathering-limited slopes underlain by coarse-grained granite or fine-grained gneiss near Seoul, Republic of Korea

Abstract

The chemical, mineral, physical, and mechanical properties of two soil layers on soil-slip scars in slopes underlain by coarse-grained granite and fine-grained granitic gneiss near Seoul, Republic of Korea, were examined. Our aim is to study the effect of the mineral grain size of the bedrock on the soil layer structure and the return period of shallow soil slips. Because of the coarser slope materials in granite resulting from weathering, the permeability is larger and the weathering front has a copious water supply; also, because of the smaller specific surface area of the minerals, restricted leaching produces grus from the bedrock, so that the rate of formation of soil (and in particular the slip plane) due to chemical weathering is faster. Since, on granite slopes, the leaching proceeds toward the surface, the sliding plane is deeper with coarser soft grus, resulting in the existence of a minimum c value in the soil layer. On gneiss slopes, by contrast, leaching cannot proceed with decreasing soil depth, and the sliding plane is deeper with finer soft grus just above hard grus and has similar c and ϕ values as the upper soft grus because the grain size of both soils is the same. In the granite soil layers, the sliding plane corresponds to the minimum shearing resistance, whereas in the gneiss soil layers, the shearing resistance increases gradually with soil depth, and the sliding plane is formed when the weathering front is located deeper. Because of the faster soil formation rate and the shallower slip depth in granite slopes, the return period of occurrence of soil slips should be shorter in granite slopes than in gneiss slopes.