Abstract
The regional distribution of landslide dams can provide valuable insights into the interactions among various factors, including lithology, topography, climate, and fluvial landforms in tectonically active mountains. Himalayan rivers are frequently impacted by large-scale landslide damming, which profoundly influence fluvial geomorphology. In this study, we identified 1652 landslide dams in four major rivers of Bhutan and its surrounding area by remote sensing interpretation. Notably, approximately 71% of these landslide dams are found in regions composed of quartzite or gneiss. Fault-related tectonic activity plays a significant role in governing the distribution of these landslide dams, as approximately 83% of the mapped landslide dams are found within a 10 km radius of the nearest fault. The majority of the identified landslide dams are situated in areas with relatively modest local relief, ranging from 227 m to 327 m. These dams tend to cluster in the tributaries, and the stream power of almost 95% of them is typically below 1×106 kg m2 s−3. Our data, combining the erosion rate and kernel density map of the landslide dams, reveals that regions with high erosion rates do not consistently align with the major high-density distribution of landslide dams. It is shown that the distribution of landslide dams is strongly influenced by the valley form. In comparison to U-shaped valleys, V-shaped valleys exhibit a higher density of landslide dams. Intriguingly, we also find a positive correlation between the landslide-dam distribution density and the erosion rate only in relatively arid regions with mean annual rainfall less than 500 mm. Moreover, the length of the upstream reach protected by the knickpoint associated with both lithology and landslide damming is about three times longer than that protected by the knickpoint associated only with landslide damming.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91747207), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1505205), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41790434). Thanks also go to the developers of TopoToolbox and the Topographic Analysis Kit (TAK) tool for making this work possible.
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ZHANG Qi-yuan, HU Kai-heng contributed to the conception of the study; ZHANG Qi-yuan contributed significantly to analysis and manuscript preparation; ZHANG Qi-yuan performed the data analyses and wrote the manuscript; HU Kai-heng, LIU Shuang, LIU Wei-ming conducted constructive discussions.
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Data Availability: Data supporting this research article are available from the corresponding author on request.
Conflict of Interest: The coauthor of this article HU Kai-heng is the editorial board member of Journal of Mountain Science. He was not involved in the journal’s review of, or decisions related to, this manuscript.
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Zhang, Qy., Hu, Kh., Liu, S. et al. Controls on the regional distribution of landslide dams and implications for fluvial landform evolution in Bhutan and its surrounding area. J. Mt. Sci. 20, 2107–2132 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-023-8041-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-023-8041-6