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The anatomy of an active slide: the Gascons rockslide, Québec, Canada

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Abstract

A railroad crosses the coastal Gascons rockslide, in Quebec, Canada. This study improves the understanding of the rockslide’s failure mechanism and post-failure behaviour responsible for the deformation in the railroad. The slide is an asymmetrical wedge failure of 410,000 m3, in rocks made up of centimetre-scale beds of nodular calcilutite alternating with sandstones and limestone. The post-failure stage of the rockslide is characterised by continuous movement of blocks with speeds ranging from 6 to 110 mm/year. The main water table is just below the sliding surface, but precipitation and snowmelt can raise it above the sliding surface in the upper part of the slide. We propose a model for the rockslide, its failure mechanism, geometry and hydrogeology to provide a baseline for interpreting the near-real-time data collected since 2009.

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Acknowledgments

The writers acknowledge the support of the Ministère des transports du Québec (C. Jacob), Transport Canada (D. Hébert), the Ministère de l’éducation des loisirs et des sports du Québec, the Canadian Space Agency and the Earth Science Sector (ESS-CCMEO) of Natural Resources Canada (François Charbonneau and Vern Singhroy) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Special thanks are due to Pierre-Étienne Lord (U. Laval, MRN), L. Danisch (Measurand), P. Therrien (U. Laval) and Andrea Pedrazzini. Two anonymous reviewers provided many constructive suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’études sur les risques naturels, Département de géologie et de génie géologique, Université Laval, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, 1065 avenue de la Médecine, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Catherine Cloutier & Jacques Locat

  2. Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, 601 Booth St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E8, Canada

    Réjean Couture

  3. Risk-group- ISTE - Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculté des Géosciences et de l’Environnement, Université de Lausanne, Géopolis-3793, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Michel Jaboyedoff

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  1. Catherine Cloutier
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  2. Jacques Locat
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  3. Réjean Couture
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  4. Michel Jaboyedoff
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Correspondence to Catherine Cloutier.

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Cloutier, C., Locat, J., Couture, R. et al. The anatomy of an active slide: the Gascons rockslide, Québec, Canada. Landslides 13, 241–258 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0566-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0566-5

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