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Reactivation mechanism of a large-scale ancient landslide

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Abstract

This paper presents details of the recently reactivated landslide in Wushan Town, Chongqing, China. The landslide was reactivated on July 17, 2019, by slope cutting, and thereafter, entered a state of imminent sliding. The landslide involved 4 million m3 of rock and soil masses, thereby threatening National Road G348 and the safety of 588 residents in 136 households in Xiping Village and over 1000 residents in the Jinke Community. Field investigations, drilling, and in situ monitoring were performed to determine the landslide deformation characteristics and reactivation mechanism. The results show that the regional abundant rainfall, formation lithology, and tectonic effects were responsible for the formation of the ancient Baiyangwan landslide. Moreover, the building load on the rear and middle parts increased the sliding force. Open excavation at the toe decreased the anti-sliding force and directly promoted landslide reactivation. In particular, the groundwater table rise caused by gully filling in recent years also played a key role in the reactivation of the ancient landslide.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Wang Heng and Luo Dan from 208 Geological Team, Chongqing, for their great assistance in the field investigation and providing monitoring data.

Funding

The work was supported by funding from the Geological Hazard Prevention and Control Project for Follow-up Work of the Three Gorges Reservoir region (ID:0001212019CC60001), the National Key R&D program (ID:2018YFC1504803) and the Project from China Geological Survey (DD20190637). This paper is a product of the study on the Long-term Strength Weakening Law and Protection Measures of the Yangtze river Water Level in Chongqing Reservoir Area of the Three Gorges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Chenyang Zhang & Luqi Wang

  2. Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey, Wuhan, 430205, China

    Chenyang Zhang & Zhenwei Dai

  3. China Institute of Geo-environment Monitoring, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yueping Yin

  4. Hubei Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, 443002, China

    Bolin Huang

  5. 208 Geological Team, Chongqing, 400700, China

    Zhihua Zhang & Xiannian Jiang

  6. College of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710021, China

    Weijia Tan

Authors
  1. Chenyang Zhang
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  2. Yueping Yin
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  3. Zhenwei Dai
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  4. Bolin Huang
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  5. Zhihua Zhang
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  6. Xiannian Jiang
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  7. Weijia Tan
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  8. Luqi Wang
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Correspondence to Yueping Yin.

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Zhang, C., Yin, Y., Dai, Z. et al. Reactivation mechanism of a large-scale ancient landslide. Landslides 18, 397–407 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01538-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01538-9

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