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Transport process and mechanism of the Hongshiyan rock avalanche triggered by the 2014 Ludian earthquake, China

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Abstract

The Hongshiyan rock avalanche is a remarkable landslide disaster with approximately volume of 12 × 106 m3, triggered by the 2014 Ms. 6.5 Ludian earthquake in Yunnan Province, China. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis by the model based on discrete element (DEM-based) numerical simulation to understand the transport process and mechanism for this rock avalanche. The simulation results showed that the transport process of the rock avalanche depends on the input seismic duration and motion. The average velocity of the rock avalanche sharply increases to peak value of 27 m/s and then gradually decreases to zero, and 64% and 36% of the total energy are dissipated by collision and friction, respectively. In this process, the progressions from simple disintegration along pre-existing discontinuities to fragmentation that creates new fracture surface are documented, and gradual increase of the fragmentation degree over time results in the decrease of fragment size and the formation of well-graded and narrower-interval gradation. This fragmentation evolution creates a conductive condition to the development of internal shear, and is closely associated with the dense flow regime that dominates the main body of the rock avalanche but presents discontinuous distribution along the flow thickness direction. In addition, further analyzing the simulated results indicates that more likely effects of fragmentation on mobility of rock avalanches depend on fragmentation-induced special flow structure, which makes a rock avalanche in a flow state with lower friction and lower energy consumption.

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Acknowledgements

Critical comments by the anonymous reviewers greatly improved the initial manuscript.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1501102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41977229), and the Sichuan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Research Team Project (2020JDTD0006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan, 610031, China

    Shi-lin Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Shi-lin Zhang, Hai-bo Li & Jia-wen Zhou

  3. China Geological Survey, China Institute of Geo-Environment Monitoring, Beijing, 10081, China

    Yue-ping Yin & Wen-pei Wang

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  1. Shi-lin Zhang
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  2. Yue-ping Yin
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  3. Hai-bo Li
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  5. Jia-wen Zhou
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Correspondence to Jia-wen Zhou.

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Zhang, Sl., Yin, Yp., Li, Hb. et al. Transport process and mechanism of the Hongshiyan rock avalanche triggered by the 2014 Ludian earthquake, China. Landslides 19, 1987–2004 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-022-01878-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-022-01878-8

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