Dry Landslides Research Articles

Dynamics of landslides on ice-rich space objects

This work is aimed at investigating the velocity of landslides on ice-containing cosmic bodies of low gravity. We performed a series of experiments dealing with the sliding of desiccated sand on ice and ice-containing mixtures. Measurements were performed in vacuum and at normal pressure in different spatial scales. The values of the velocity derived from the results of experiments were scaled using the gravitational acceleration relevant for the space objects of different sizes: the nuclei of comets and the dwarf planet Ceres. We have found, that the average velocity of material sliding down a hundred meters long slope on the nucleus of a comet should be of the order 0.01 m s−1, while the velocity of dry landslides on Ceres should be two orders of magnitude higher.

Engineering Geological Study of Road Tunnel Along Siddhartha Highway Between Butwal and Dobhan Siwaliks Group, West-central Nepal

The Siddhartha Highway is a critical economic artery in Nepal, providing a vital trade link with China and India. However, this roadway has been beset by the frequent occurrence of rock falls and dry landslides, which can cause severe damage and disruption. The main causes of these issues are differential weathering patterns of the rocks, activation of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), and a young mountain chain with fragile geology. Because of road instability, the road tunnel has been proposed to prevent damage. The proposed tunnel road passes between the chainage of 29+000 and 30+370 in the rocks of the Lower and Middle Siwaliks. The Lower Siwaliks are composed of thick to thin-bedded shale, mudstone and calcareous sandstone whereas the Middle Siwaliks are represented by presence of friable sandstone, shale and mudstone. The rock mass of this section varies from poor rock to extremely poor rock with RMR values ranging from 29 to 45 and Q values ranging from 0.19 to 1.11. The support system for each class is derived according to RMR and Q-value. The kinematic analysis reveals the potential of wedge failure at the southern portal of the road tunnel, whereas the northern portal has shown a low potential for failure.

Is the number of global natural disasters increasing?

ABSTRACT We analyze temporal trends in the number of natural disasters reported since 1900 in the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) from the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Visual inspection suggests three distinct phases: first, a linear upward trend to around mid-century followed by rapid growth to the turn of the new century, and thereafter a decreasing trend to 2022. These observations are supported by piecewise regression analyses that identify three breakpoints (1922, 1975, 2002), with the most recent subperiod 2002–2022 characterized by a significant decline in number of events. A similar pattern over time is exhibited by contemporaneous number of geophysical disasters – volcanoes, earthquakes, dry landslides – which, by their nature, are not significantly influenced by climate or anthropogenic factors. We conclude that the patterns observed are largely attributable to progressively better reporting of natural disaster events, with the EM-DAT dataset now regarded as relatively complete since ∼2000. The above result sits in marked contradiction to earlier analyses by two UN bodies (FAO andUNDRR), which predicts an increasing number of natural disasters and impacts in concert with global warming. Our analyses strongly refute this assertion as well as extrapolations published by UNDRR based on this claim.

The Rocky‐Like Behavior of Cometary Landslides on 67P/Churyumov‐Gerasimenko

AbstractLandslides have been identified on several solar system bodies, and different mechanisms have been proposed to explain their runout length. We analyze images from the Rosetta mission and report the global characterization of such features on comet 67P/Churyumov‐Gerasimenko's surface. By assuming the height to runout length as an approximation for the friction coefficient of landslide material, we find that on comet 67P, this ratio falls between 0.50 and 0.97. Such unexpected high values reveal a rocky‐type mechanical behavior that is much more akin to Earth dry landslides than to icy satellites' mass movements. This behavior indicates that 67P and likely comets in general are characterized by consolidated materials possibly rejecting the idea that they are fluffy aggregates. The variability of the runout length among 67P landslides can be attributed to the different volatile content located in the top few meters of the cometary crust, which can drive the mass movement.

Debris-flow generated tsunamis and their dependence on debris-flow dynamics

Debris-flow generated tsunamis can be extremely dangerous for lakeside settlements and infrastructure. Debris-flow composition strongly affects debris-flow thickness and velocity, and therefore also the generated tsunami. This interaction is, however, poorly understood. We investigate the effects of debris-flow volume, composition (gravel, sand, clay, water) and subaerial outflow slope on wave celerity and amplitude in a small-scale physical model consisting of an inclined outflow channel which transits into a three-dimensional water reservoir.We find that upon debouching, a debris flow pushes the water forward until wave celerity exceeds subaqueous debris-flow velocity (i.e. Froude number <1). The wave then detaches from the debris flow and travels into the far-field. Pushing of the debris-flow oversteepens and accelerates the generated wave beyond the celerity predicted by linear wave theory for shallow waves. It also increases its non-linearity but does not result in wave breaking.Wave celerity has the strongest relation with debris-flow velocity. Debris-flow velocity increases with increasing water and clay content (up to 22%), which both lubricate the flow. Far-field leading wave amplitude has the strongest relation with debris-flow momentum (velocity times effective mass), which is mostly a function of debris-flow thickness, water and clay content.We test the applicability of published (semi-empirical) equations for predicting tsunami amplitude generated by dry landslides, and show that they are to some extent also applicable to debris flow. Potential scale effects, especially considering the smallest waves and water depths, could influence the applicability of these predictors and translation of the results to the field scale. Our results demonstrate the importance of debris-flow composition on tsunami generation and evolution, and thus the necessity of including flow composition in predictive simulation models.

The Mitla Landslide, an Event That Changed the Fate of a Mixteco/Zapoteco Civilization in Mesoamerica

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, Mitla was the second most important city in the valleys of Oaxaca, México. However, the ruins that are visible today do not seem to match the size of a city of more than 10,000 inhabitants. Geological and geophysical studies suggest that part of the city was covered by the deposits of a dry landslide likely to have been caused by an earthquake with a magnitude that could vary between 6 and 7. This landslide is monolithological, which is why two geophysical methods were used in order to evaluate its geometrical characteristics and to suggest the possible existence of archeological remains under the landslide.

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics for the interaction of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids using the μ(I) model

The interaction between Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid is one the most complicated problems for the engineers in the field of fluid mechanics. In the last decades, Lagrangian methods including smooth particle hydrodynamics has had the great interests among the different approaches in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this paper the collapse of the granular column and dry landslide and also two phase dam break and submerged landslide phenomena have been done through open source SPHysics2D code. The proposed model describes both fluid and sediment particles as weakly compressible flow where the sediment is treated as a non-Newtonian fluid using a viscoplastic model, called μ(I) model. This model is based on the properties of grains including inertia and friction coefficient. First, the performance of the viscoplastic code was investigated for a one- phase model by comparing the results measured in the laboratory and those obtained by developed code. Then, the movable dam break and submerged landslide phenomena were investigated, by the code developed for a two phase model, including Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid. μ(I) viscoplastic model is utilized for the solid phase, Owen's equation and the mean harmonic viscosity are used to introduce the interactions between the particles containing different viscosities and densities. Results show that the model used in this research has reasonable accuracy by comparing with experimental models.

Reply to comment by Iverson on “The reduction of friction in long runout landslides as an emergent phenomenon”

AbstractHere we address the comments by Iverson (2016) on our recent work concerning the reduction of friction in long runout landslides. Iverson (2016) questions the veracity of our models and suggests that high basal pore fluid pressure is the dominant mechanism reducing friction in long runout landslides. The main goal of our work was to elucidate the mechanism responsible for the apparent reduction of friction and long runout occurring in the landslide simulations of Campbell et al. (1995), which did not include an interstitial fluid. We found that the apparent reduction of friction in large slides could be explained by acoustic waves causing sliding to preferentially occur at pressures below the expected overburden, a mechanism reminiscent of acoustic fluidization. Such a mechanism is required to explain the long runout of dry landslides such as those on the Moon and other airless or waterless bodies. While our models provide no estimates of the effect of fluids on landslide runout, we have demonstrated a mechanism that increases runout distances that does not involve fluids.

Environmental Control of Early Succession on a Large Landslide in a Tropical Dry Ecosystem (Casita Volcano, Nicaragua)

ABSTRACTWe described the plant communities on a large landslide in a human‐dominated area of tropical dry forest landscape (Casita Volcano, Nicaragua) and in the adjacent forest, 3 yr after landslide occurrence. At both sites, we determined the relationships between spatial changes in environmental factors and the spatial distribution of species and plant traits. Subsequently, we tested the hypothesis that the compositional similarity between the landslide and the forest increased with a decrease in the distance from the forest edge and the width of the landslide. In the forest, the spatial distribution of species and plant traits was determined mainly by an elevational gradient that was associated with the amount of bare soil, whereas, on the landslide, there was no such gradient but species distributions were influenced mostly by the presence of residual agricultural and forest soils and human disturbance. We did not find an increase in compositional similarity between the landslide and the forest at the edge or in the narrow zones of the landslide. Compared to other landslides, the recovery process was strongly influenced by the extreme abiotic heterogeneity, climate seasonality, and human use in the area. The study of succession in tropical dry landslides located in densely populated zones should focus on understanding the response of regional ecosystems to a complex disturbance regime in which human‐induced disturbances play a major role.

Observations of martian gullies and constraints on potential formation mechanisms: II. The northern hemisphere

The formation process(es) responsible for creating the observed geologically recent gully features on Mars has remained the subject of intense debate since their discovery. We present new data and analysis of northern hemisphere gullies from Mars Global Surveyor data which is used to test the various proposed mechanisms of gully formation. We located 137 Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images in the northern hemisphere that contain clear evidence of gully landforms and analyzed these images in combination with Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) data to provide quantitative measurements of numerous gully characteristics. Parameters we measured include apparent source depth and distribution, vertical and horizontal dimensions, slopes, orientations, and present-day characteristics that affect local ground temperatures. Northern hemisphere gullies are clustered in Arcadia Planitia, Tempe Terra, Acidalia Planitia, and Utopia Planitia. These gullies form in craters (84%), knobby terrain (4%), valleys (3%), other/unknown terrains (9%) and are found on all slope orientations although the majority of gullies are equator-facing. Most gullies (63%) are associated with competent rock strata, 26% are not associated with strata, and 11% are ambiguous. Assuming thermal conductivities derived from TES measurements as well as modeled surface temperatures, we find that 95% of the gully alcove bases with adequate data coverage lie at depths where subsurface temperatures are greater than 273 K and 5% of the alcove bases lie within the solid water regime. The average alcove length is 470 m and the average channel length is 690 m. Based on a comparison of measured gully features with predictions from the various models of gully formation, we find that models involving carbon dioxide, melting ground ice in the upper few meters of the soil, dry landslide, and surface snowmelt are the least likely to describe the formation of the martian gullies. Although some discrepancies still exist between prediction and observation, the shallow and deep aquifer models remain as the most plausible theories. Interior processes involving subsurface fluid sources are generally favored over exogenic processes such as wind and snowfall for explaining the origin of the martian gullies. These findings gleaned from the northern hemisphere data are in general agreement with analyses of gullies in the southern hemisphere [Heldmann, J.L., Mellon, M.T., 2004. Icarus 168, 285–304].

Comparison of small lunar landslides and martian gullies

Some lunar crater-wall landslides strongly resemble martian gullies, despite the lack of geologically active water on the Moon today or in the past. The lunar features indicate that alcove–channel–apron morphology, attributed on Mars to seepage of liquid water, can also form via a dry landslide mechanism. Therefore a more stringent test than just an alcove–channel–apron morphology is necessary to differentiate dry landslides from water carved gullies.

Martian landslides in Valles Marineris: Wet or dry?

The objective of this paper is to determine whether martian landslides in Valles Marineris were wet or dry and place constraints on the availability of liquid water in Valles Marineris during the Amazonian, when the landslides occurred. We, thus, statistically compare the power-law relationship between the volume and runout distance of landslides on Earth with those in Valles Marineris, Mars. The exponent of the power-law for martian landslides is similar to that for dry landslides and volcanic flows on Earth, and differs significantly from wet debris flows on Earth. The constant of proportionality in the observed power-law relationship for martian flows is linearly proportional to gravity, as predicted from physical modeling of dry flows in which the dissipation occurs in a layer of uniform thickness. Conversion of gravitational potential energy to heat is insufficient to generate more than a few weight percent of liquid water in the landslide. We thus conclude that water did not significantly influence the dynamics of landslides in Valles Marineris. This implies predominantly dry conditions in Valles Marineris during the Amazonian.

Observations of martian gullies and constraints on potential formation mechanisms

The discovery of presumably geologically recent gully features on Mars (Malin and Edgett, 2000, Science 288, 2330–2335) has spawned a wide variety of proposed theories of their origin including hypotheses of the type of erosive material. To test the validity of gully formation mechanisms, data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has been analyzed to uncover trends in the dimensional and physical properties of the gullies and their surrounding terrain. We located 106 Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images that contain clear evidence of gully landforms, distributed in the southern mid and high latitudes, and analyzed these images in combination with Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) data to provide quantitative measurements of numerous gully characteristics. Parameters we measured include apparent source depth and distribution, vertical and horizontal dimensions, slopes, orientations, and present-day characteristics that affect local ground temperatures. We find that the number of gully systems normalized to the number of MOC images steadily declines as one moves poleward of 30° S, reaches a minimum value between 60°–63° S, and then again rises poleward of 63° S. All gully alcove heads occur within the upper one-third of the slope encompassing the gully and the alcove bases occur within the upper two-thirds of the slope. Also, the gully alcove heads occur typically within the first 200 meters of the overlying ridge with the exception of gullies equatorward of 40° S where some alcove heads reach a maximum depth of 1000 meters. While gullies exhibit complex slope orientation trends, gullies are found on all slope orientations at all the latitudes studied. Assuming thermal conductivities derived from TES measurements as well as modeled surface temperatures, we find that 79% of the gully alcove bases lie at depths where subsurface temperatures are greater than 273 K and 21% of the alcove bases lie within the solid water regime. Most of the gully alcoves lie outside the temperature–pressure phase stability of liquid CO 2. Based on a comparison of measured gully features with predictions from the various models of gully formation, we find that models involving carbon dioxide, melting ground ice in the upper few meters of the soil, dry landslide, and surface snowmelt are the least likely to describe the formation of the martian gullies. Although some discrepancies still exist between prediction and observation, the shallow and deep aquifer models remain as the most plausible theories. Interior processes involving subsurface fluid sources are generally favored over exogenic processes such as wind and snowfall for explaining the origin of the martian gullies.

Fluidization in dry landslides

This paper aims at determining the physical properties affecting the distance travelled by landslides with dry particles, and elucidating the mechanism of the properties affecting landslide fluidization. The procedure is as follows: laboratory landslide experiments were conducted to verify the simulation model which was proposed to represent the movement of landslides. Further, sensitivity analysis for some physical properties affecting the travel distance were conducted using this model. The simulation model could identify the coordinates, velocity and angular velocity for every particle in three-dimensional space, and the kinetic energy of particles consumed by inelastic and frictional collision with each other in the model. The travel distances of landslides simulated by the model were verified by laboratory experiments statistically where the physical properties for the particles and slope angle were changed. Then, sensitivity analysis for the physical properties were conducted using the model to clarify the effect of the properties on the travel distance. It was proven that there were no significant differences between the travel distances represented by the simulation model and those found experimentally using statistical analysis (i.e. the simulation model could represent virtual real landslides). From the sensitivity analysis using the simulation model, the travel distances were positively correlated to volume, or number of particles, and negative correlated to the slope angle, kinetic friction and rolling friction of particles when the initial potential energies were the same. The mass of particles of equal size did not affect the distance travelled. As the number of particles increased, the simulated travel distances tended to be longer compared with theoretical travel distances calculated using the friction between particles and the slope. Consequently, we could determine the distance of the lumped mass model as being critical between fluidized and non-fluidized landslides.

Analysis of a large moist landslide, Lost River Range, Idaho, U.S.A.

This paper describes the regional geology, dimensions, morphology, sedimentology, and age relations of the Holocene "Carlson landslide," a large moist landslide composed of basalt breccia located on the eastern margin of the Lost River Range, Idaho. These data are combined to deduce the factors that prompted the slope failure, the kinematics of initiation, travel, and stopping of the landslide, as well as its postemplacement degradation. The landslide is compared with other terrestrial mass movements on the basis of morphology, sedimentology, log(volume) versus fall height –runout length (H/L) relations and estimated Bingham plastic yield strength. Morphology and sedimentology distinguish dry landslides from moist and water-saturated deposits. However, moist and water-saturated landslides plot well within the log(volume) versus H/L envelope for dry terrestrial landslides and exhibit overlapping ranges of estimated Bingham plastic yield strength values with dry landslides, indicating that moist and water-saturated landslides must travel much like dry rock avalanches of similar volume. Thus the mechanism(s) responsible for causing anomalous runout in large dry landslides could operate in moist and water-saturated landslides as well. Morphological comparison of the Carlson landslide with lobate martian landslides suggests a role for water in the martian landslides. Key words: landslides, debris flows, long runout, morphology, water, Mars.