Abstract
Rainfall-induced landslides are a significant hazard in many areas of loess-covered terrain in Northwest China. To investigate the response of a loess landslide to rainfall, a series of artificial rainfall experiments were conducted on a natural loess slope, located in the Bailong River Basin, in southern Gansu Province. The slope was instrumented to measure surface runoff, pore water pressure, soil water content, earth pressure, displacement, and rainfall. The hydrological response was also characterized by time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography. The results show that most of the rainfall infiltrated into the loess landslide, and that the pore water pressure and water content responded rapidly to simulated rainfall events. This indicates that rainfall infiltration on the loess landslide was significantly affected by preferential flow through fissures and macropores. Different patterns of pore water pressure and water content variations were determined by the antecedent soil moisture conditions, and by the balance between water recharge and drainage in the corresponding sections. We observed three stages of changing pore water pressure and displacement within the loess landslide during the artificial rainfall events: Increases in pore water pressure initiated movement on the slope, acceleration in movement resulting in a rapid decrease in pore water pressure, and attainment of a steady state. We infer that a negative pore water pressure feedback process may have occurred in response to shear-induced dilation of material as the slope movement accelerated. The process of shear dilatant strengthening may explain the phenomenon of semi-continuous movement of the loess landslide. Shear dilatant strengthening, caused by intermittent or continuous rainfall over long periods, can occur without triggering rapid slope failure.
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Acknowledgements
This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41661144046), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (Grant No. 1606RJYA235), the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2011BAK12B06) and the Opening Fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection of Chengdu University of Technology (SKLGP2017K009). We thank Guo Peng, Zeng Runqiang, Xiong Muqi, Cui Zhijie and Zeng Yutong for their assistance during the field experiment, Zhang Fanyu for valuable discussion which improved the manuscript. The authors are also very grateful to Jan Bloemendal for revising the English and to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their very useful comments and suggestions.
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Chen, G., Meng, X., Qiao, L. et al. Response of a loess landslide to rainfall: observations from a field artificial rainfall experiment in Bailong River Basin, China. Landslides 15, 895–911 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-017-0924-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-017-0924-6