Abstract
The Pisciotta landslide is a slow-moving deep-seated rock slide in the Cilento region (southern Italy), which involves in the middle of its body a provincial road causing continuous interruptions of vehicular traffic. It also represents a danger for two railway tunnels crossing its foot. The landslide affects a complexly folded and tectonized turbidite series composed of intercalated calcarenites, marls and mudrocks. The principal objective of this study was the kinematic analysis of the landslide and its relationship with rainfall patterns. The analysis was based on monitoring of ground deformations carried out on 50 optical targets by topographical techniques. The latters were distributed in the middle-upper part of the landslide body, in order to set an early warning system for the provincial road. The monitoring activity was performed in the periods August 2005–March 2010 (1699 days) and May 2011–September 2013 (721 days). Besides the analysis of basic kinematic parameters, such as displacement, direction of movement and velocity, also the strain field was modelled and analyzed through the SSPX numerical code. Among principal results, spatial distribution of displacements, velocities and deformation patterns revealed a strong coherence with the detected surficial structures of the landslide. Moreover, the coupled spatial and temporal variability of deformation patterns allowed understanding a complex kinematics of the landslide body whose movements were related to a series of interacting blocks of flysch rock-masses. The analysis of the temporal variability of the landslide kinematics revealed uncommon findings such as that the landslide was always in motion (active) in the observation periods, with velocities ranging from the very low to low classes. Maximum velocities were observed unexpectedly in summer, during the dry period. Cross-correlation analyses performed between mean landslide velocity and rainfall time series showed a delay of about six months.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
APAT (2003) Agenzia per la Protezione dell’Ambiente e per i servizi Tecnici. Geological Map of Italy, 1:50.000 scale, Sheet No. 503—Vallo della Lucania
Bonardi G, Amore FO, Ciampo G, De Capoa P, Miconnet P, Perrone V (1988) Il complesso Liguride: stato delle conoscenze e problemi aperti sulla sua evoluzione pre-appenninica e dei suoi rapporti con l’arco calabro. Mem Soc Geol Ital 41:17–35
Cardozo N, Allmendinger RW (2009) SSPX: a program to compute strain froma displacement/ velocity data. Comput Geosci 35:1343–1357
Cruden DM, Varnes DJ (1996). Landslide types and processes. In: Turner AK, Shuster RL (Eds) Landslides: investigation and mitigation. Transp Res Board Spec Rep 247:36–75
D’Argenio B, Pescatore ET, Scandone P (1973) Schema geologico dell’Appennino meridionale. Atti del Convegno Moderne vedute sulla geologia dell’Appennino. Accad Naz dei Lincei 183:49–72
De Blasio L, Lima A, Perrone V, Russo M (1978) Studio petrografico e biostratigrafico di una sezione della Formazione del Saraceno nell’area tipo (Calabria nord-orientale). Riv Ital Paleontol 84:947–972
De Vita P, Cevasco A, Cavallo C (2012) Detailed rock failure susceptibility mapping in steep rocky coasts by means of non-contact geostructural surveys: the case study of Tigullio Gulf (Eastern Liguria, Northern Italy). Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 12(4): 867–880
De Vita P, Carratù MT, La Barbera G, Santoro S (2013) Kinematics and geological constraints of the slow-moving Pisciotta rock slide (southern Italy). Geomorphology 201:415–429
Di Staso A, Giardino S (2002) New integrate biostratigraphy data about the saraceno formation (North Calabrian Unit, Southern Appennine). Ital J Geosci (Special Issue) 1(2):517–526
Esu F (1977) Behavior of slopes in structurally complex formation. In: Proceedings of the international symposium “The geotechnics of structurally complex formation”. Capri volume 3
Fleming RW, Johnson AM (1989) Structures associated with strike–slip faults that bound landslide elements. Eng Geol 27:39–114
Guerriero L, Cardozo N, Revellino P (2016) Earth-flow deformation from GPS surveys, Mount Pizzuto earth flow, southern Italy. Rendiconti Online Società Geologica Italiana 41:163–166
Marinos P, Hoek E (2001) Estimating the geotechnical properties of rock masses such as flysch. Bull Eng Geol Environ 60:85–92
Mazzoli S, Helman M (1994) Neogene patterns of relative plate motion for Africa—Europe: some implication for recent central mediterranean tectonics. Geol Rundsch 83:464–468
Mostardini F, Merlini S (1986) Appennino Centro Meridionale. Sezioni Geologiche e proposta di modello strutturale. Mem Soc Geol It 35:177–202
Patacca E, Scandone P (2007) Geology of the southern appennines “CROP 4”, special issue. Ital J Geosci 7:75–119
Pinto F, Guerriero L, Revellino P, Grelle G, Senatore MR, Guadagno FM (2016) Structural and lithostratigraphic controls of earth-flow evolution, Montaguto earth flow, Southern Italy. J Geol Soc 173:649–665
Vezzani L (1968) Distribuzione, facies e stratigrafia della Formazione del Saraceno (Albiano-Daniano) nell’area compresa tra il Mare Jonio ed il torrente Frido. Geologica Romana VII:229–276
Vitale S, Ciarcia S, Mazzoli S, Zaghoul MN (2010) Tectonic evolution of the “Liguride“ accretionary wedge in the Cilento area, southern Italy: a record of an early Appennine geodynamics. J Geodyn 51:25–36
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
De Vita, P., Cusano, D., La Barbera, G. (2017). Complex Rainfall-Driven Kinematics of the Slow-Moving Pisciotta Rock-Slide (Cilento, Southern Italy). In: Mikoš, M., Casagli, N., Yin, Y., Sassa, K. (eds) Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. WLF 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53485-5_64
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53485-5_64
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53484-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53485-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)