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A coupled slope cutting—a prolonged rainfall-induced loess landslide: a 17 October 2011 case study

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Abstract

Continuous and heavy precipitation in the early September 2011 triggered several landslides in Xi’ an, Shaanxi province, China. A particularly relevant example is the Bailu tableland landslide occurrence on 17 September 17 2011, which was responsible for 32 casualties. This was selected as a case study for investigating the trigger factors, formation process, and hazard characteristics of the landslides of this type. The results showed that: (1) The Bailu landslide possessed a relative height = 90 m and width = 170 m, respectively, an average initiation thickness was 10 m, a sliding direction and distance of 55° and 150 m, respectively, a total volume of 15 × 104 m3, and an average deposit thickness of 12 m; (2)The main trigger factors were excessive slope cutting with a heavy and long duration of rainfall; (3) The landslide was a typical example of its type, based on the trigger factors since the formation process of the landslide is generally as follows: cutting leads to gravitational and stress field redistribution, initiating the appearance of cracks, which then enlarge after the continuous infiltration of rainwater. This results in the formation of additional cracks, and finally, slope failure; a nd (4) Based on our analyses of this landslide and previous events, we proposed equations to determine the critical precipitation threshold and the potential risk distance. This study provided an important reference for understanding and studying the mechanisms of this type of landslide, as well as guidelines for future disaster prevention and mitigation in this region.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to editors and anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful review comments that improved this paper to make it more interesting. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Tang dongqi, Dr. Wang qiyao, Dr. Wu di and for their contributions and involvement in the field investigations and experiment. This work was financially supported by the National Key Fundamental Research Program of China (973) (2014CB744703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41130753 and 41202244), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2013G1261063).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geological Engineering and Surveying of Changan University/Key Laboratory of Western China Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Jian-qi Zhuang & Jian-bing Peng

  2. Institute of Geo-hazards Mitigation and Research of Changan University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Jian-qi Zhuang & Jian-bing Peng

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Correspondence to Jian-bing Peng.

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Zhuang, Jq., Peng, Jb. A coupled slope cutting—a prolonged rainfall-induced loess landslide: a 17 October 2011 case study. Bull Eng Geol Environ 73, 997–1011 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-014-0645-1

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