Abstract
Water-rich slope, which could easily fail after prolonged or heavy rain, is very sensitive to rainfall. Pingyikou Landslide is a typical water-rich slope located in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China. It was unstable because of the continuous rainfall that occurred from September to October 2017. To understand the deformation process and genetic mechanism of the landslide, the geomorphological features, geological characteristics, hydrological conditions, and rainfall characteristics were systematically studied by a detailed field investigation of the slope and monitoring of rainfall, water level, and displacement. In addition, the influence of different initial conditions on the stability of the slope was also studied through numerical simulation using measured rainfall data on the basis of which, the effect of antecedent rainfall on slope stability was studied by unsaturated seepage analysis method. The results show that the deformation of slope is strongly correlated with the rainfall and groundwater level, and this landslide is a typical rainfall-induced landslide. In the analysis of genetic mechanism of the same type of landslide, a maximum initial pore water pressure of −25 kPa as the initial condition is reasonable. And the antecedent rainfall has a greater effect on the stability of the slope, more than 10 days of antecedent rainfall should be considered when designing and controling the slope.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51879245 and 41920104007), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Nos. CUGCJ1821 and CUG1910491T07), and the National Overseas Study Fund (No. 202106410040). The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1722-1.
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Tong, D., Su, A., Tan, F. et al. Genetic Mechanism of Water-Rich Landslide Considering Antecedent Rainfalls: A Case Study of Pingyikou Landslide in Three Gorges Reservoir Area. J. Earth Sci. 34, 1878–1891 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1722-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1722-1