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The Failure and River Blocking Mechanism of Large-Scale Anti-dip Rock Landslide Induced by Earthquake

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Abstract

Landslide and river blocking induced by earthquakes have occurred widely in nature. The topography and geological structure of slopes have a considerable influence on the geotechnical structure of the formed landslide dam. In the Hongshiyan valley (Niulan river, Yunnan province, China), a large-scale anti-dip rock landslide was triggered by Ludian earthquake in 2014 with more than 1.36 × 107 m3 of displaced rock, which formed a barrier lake with an estimated volume of 2.6 × 108 m3. In relation to this example, the whole process from triggering, failure, disintegration, to landslide dam formation blocking a river is simulated using the discrete element method (DEM). For this, a 3D DEM modeling methodology of the complex landslide is proposed that includes an inversion strategy which uses laboratory tests of rock samples from the landslide to obtain the numerical parameters for the DEM. Initial investigations indicate that the weak slope base is an important internal factor resulting in the failure of the slope. During the earthquake, this part of the slope is the first to disintegrate and flow out under the upper rock mass pressure. This exposes the upper rock mass to large domains of tensile stress that eventually leads to the failure and disintegration of the upper hard rock mass. The anti-dip bedding of the slope results in a landslide dam consisting of "fine particles at the lower elevations and coarse rock blocks deposit at the higher elevations". Our model also suggests that the triggering and failure mode of the landslide may mostly depend on the external factors (such as earthquake, rainfall, and river erosion and so on), while the subsequent dynamic process of the landslide and the engineering geological structure of the landslide dam mainly depend on the geological structure of the slope, sliding distance and topography of the valley.

Highlights

  • A typical “weak base” anti-dip layered rock landslide induced by earthquake has been introduced.

  • A method for the 3D DEM complex model generation of landslide is proposed.

  • The whole process of the landslide and river blocking process have been studied by using DEM.

  • The geological structure of the barrier dam is controlled by the slide body, runout distance and topography of valley.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the project of “Natural Science Foundation of China (41941019, 51879142)”, “Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (2020-KY-04)”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Hydraulic Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Wen-Jie Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Eco-Hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region (Xi’an University of Technology), Xi’an, 710048, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Wang

  3. China Power Kunming Engineering Corporation Limited, Kunming, 650051, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China

    Kai Cheng

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  1. Wen-Jie Xu
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  2. Lin Wang
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  3. Kai Cheng
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Contributions

WJX performed the numerical simulations of this study and wrote the manuscript. LW performed the laboratory test of the rock sample used in this study. KC performed the geological analysis and field investigation of the landslide.

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Correspondence to Wen-Jie Xu.

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Xu, WJ., Wang, L. & Cheng, K. The Failure and River Blocking Mechanism of Large-Scale Anti-dip Rock Landslide Induced by Earthquake. Rock Mech Rock Eng 55, 4941–4961 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-02903-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-02903-x

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