Abstract
It is widely recognized that post-seismic mass movements amplify and decay. Previous studies have found that most post-seismic mass movement is concentrated in the first few years following an earthquake. A major debris flow occurred in Wenchuan County in 2019, 11 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, showing that there might be a different temporal evolution pattern. In Wenchuan Country, the area struck by the 2019 disaster was investigated to explore whether a pattern existed. Remote sensing and field surveys investigate the initiation processes, sediment supply, and triggering rainfall. The result shows that most of the active landslides occurred in high-elevation areas where vegetation cover was lacking, and nearly half of them were reactivated landslides. The debris flows were mainly initiated by run-off erosion of debris in steep channels, and more than half of the sediment supply was from deposition along the channels in some catchments. The spatial and temporal evolution of debris flows was analyzed by combining our investigation results with historical events. More debris flows occurred in the northern part of the study area, where the relative annual rainfall and coseismic landslide density were low. The average values of debris-active catchments’ size and relief are increasing, while the average values of their coseismic landslide density and the annual rainfall received were decreasing from 2008 to 2019. Larger catchments receiving less annual rainfall tend to have a more prolonged and enhanced mass movement.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2017YFC1501004) and the Special Research Assistant Foundation of Chinese Academy of Sciences (292020000076). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions for improving the paper.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Additional rainfall data information
Event date | Rainfall duration (hour) | Mean intensity (mm/h) | Maximum rainfall intensity (mm/h) | Rainfall station | Nearby catchment(s) | Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010.08.14 | 4 | 10.2 | 21.8 | RGS_7 | Y | |
2010.08.14 | 11 | 10.0 | 19.5 | RGS_8 | Hongchun (Tang et al. 2011) | Y |
2013.07.10 | 21 | 6.5 | 21.1 | RGS_7 | Y | |
2013.07.10 | 6 | 3.9 | 6.4 | RGS_3 | DF4 (Jing et al. 2015) | Y |
2013.07.10 | 9 | 3.5 | 5.3 | RGS_2 | Y | |
2013.07.10 | 8 | 8.2 | 13.3 | RGS_5 | Yinjiaba (Mozi) (Domènech et al. 2018; Tang and Van Westen 2018) | Y |
2013.07.10 | 11 | 2.0 | 6.3 | RGS_4 | Y | |
2013.07.10 | 7 | 8.0 | 18.6 | RGS_6 | Y | |
2013.07.10 | 24 | 9.8 | 35.6 | RGS_8 | Y | |
2019.08.20 | 7 | 7.6 | 19.8 | RGS_7 | DF17 | Y |
2019.08.20 | 6 | 4.1 | 8.7 | RGS_3 | DF4 | Y |
2019.08.20 | 11 | 5.4 | 17.6 | RGS_5 | Yinjiaba | N |
2019.08.20 | 4 | 6.0 | 12.7 | RGS_4 | DF4, DF6, DF9 | Y |
2019.08.20 | 9 | 7.0 | 17.6 | RGS_6 | DF10 | N |
2019.08.20 | 6 | 8.7 | 28.4 | RGS_8 | Hongchun | N |
2019.08.20 | 6 | 9.7 | 29.2 | RGS_9 | DF19 | Y |
2019.08.20 | 3 | 7.6 | 12.8 | RGS_1 | DF1 | Y |
Appendix B: Cross section example of the main channel in DF9
Cross-sectional map of the channel in DF9. a and b are the Google Earth image on October 7, 2017, and the UAV image on August 30, 2019, respectively. The traces of erosion caused by the debris flow can be seen in (b), and the red line indicates the position of the cross-section (c). The solid black line in c is the measured topographic line, and the black dotted line is the predicted topographic line before the debris flow occurred according to (a) and (b). The eroded part was divided into landslide colluvium and channel colluvium. d and e are Google Earth images on October 7, 2017, and the UAV image on August 30, 2019, respectively. The traces of drainage channels and houses buried by the debris flow can be seen in (e), and the red line indicates the position of the cross-section (f). b and e are located in Fig. 4a
Appendix C: Field investigation of debris flow entrainment
a to f show the field measurements of the debris flow entrainment depth in the channels, and their locations are shown in Fig. 5. On October 12, 2019, a, b, d, e, and f were obtained from the DF1, DF4, DF12, DF14, and DF15 channels. c was obtained from the DF9 channel on July 17, 2020
Appendix D: Active landslide
a The Google Earth image from October 7, 2017, shows the coseismic landslide in DF8. b The airbus image from November 29, 2019, shows the reactivation of pre-existing landslides (a) induced by heavy precipitation. c The Google Earth image from October 7, 2017, shows the coseismic landslide in DF8. d In this image from August 30, 2019, you can see the landslide reactivation caused by channel flow. The toe of the landslide was entrained by the flow, which made the landslide unstable
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Zhang, X., Tang, C., Li, N. et al. Investigation of the 2019 Wenchuan County debris flow disaster suggests nonuniform spatial and temporal post-seismic debris flow evolution patterns. Landslides 19, 1935–1956 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-022-01896-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-022-01896-6