Abstract
The Chada rock avalanche is a prehistoric high-elevation giant rock landslide located in the Boshula Mountains, Lhorong County, Southeast Tibet. It is composed of conglomerates with a volume of 6.62 × 106 m3 and has a height difference of 1450 m and a transport distance of 3155 m. The accumulational landform shows characteristics indicating rock avalanches. With a unique red conglomerate as the marker of landslide movement, we combined the results of geological surveys, aerial surveys, and engineering geological drilling to determine the entrainment and geomorphic features of the rock avalanche. The rock avalanche was divided into the main scarp, entrainment zone (residual deposit, mixed deposit, and impact fragmentation areas), transport zone (compressed, local landslide, and longitudinal ridge areas), and deposit zone. The sequence of deposits in the valley indicates that the rock avalanche formed before the first-stage terrace and after the second-stage terrace. Combined with 3D numerical simulation, four movement stages were obtained: (1) the rock mass was broken and disintegrated due to progressive failure, initiating high-speed sliding; (2) the sliding mass scraped the thick previous slope material and formed oblique ridges by forward extrusion and lateral friction; (3) the 4.95 × 106 m3 sliding mass was compressed and decelerated to form bending ridges, and the 1.67 × 106 m3 sliding mass continued to move through the channel; and (4) the sliding mass extended to form longitudinal ridges in the channel and hummocks in the valley. The rock avalanche accelerated three times and decelerated three times during its motion.
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Data availability
The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The code used or analysed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Prof. Zheng Da for his guidance in field survey and Prof. Liu Chun for supplying the MatDEM software. We also gratefully acknowledge the helpful editing of Naomi Twery, PhD, from American Journal Experts (www.aje.com).
Funding
The research presented in this manuscript was funded by the Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41521002) and State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Disaster Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology) (Grant No. SKLGP2017Z016).
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Lai Qiyi: conceptualization, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Zhao Jianjun: Funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, writing—review and editing. Huang Runqiu: supervision, writing—review and editing. Wang Dujiang: investigation, data curation, resources. Ju Nengpan: resources, writing—review and editing. Li Qingmiao: validation, visualization. Wang Yunsheng: supervision, writing—review and editing. Xu Qiang: supervision, resources. Zhao Weihua: writing—review and editing.
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Lai, Q., Zhao, J., Huang, R. et al. Formation mechanism and evolution process of the Chada rock avalanche in Southeast Tibet, China. Landslides 19, 331–349 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01793-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01793-4