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Classification and sudden departure mechanism of high-speed landslides caused by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Environmental Earth Sciences volume 78, Article number: 125 (2019) Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 10 May 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

The sudden departure mechanism of high-speed landslides has always constituted a popular yet difficult research topic. Therefore, although a systematic classification of high-speed landslides is necessary, particularly since different types of landslides exhibit different mechanisms, an associated methodology has yet to be established. This paper investigates an easily overlooked phenomenon—landslide-quake, which is defined as a local ground vibration triggered by the sudden rupture of the locked segment of a high-speed landslide that occurs immediately prior to the departure of the landslide. This new concept is employed as a foundation for a new classification. The characteristics and formation conditions of landslide-quake are discussed, based upon which the high-speed landslides that occurred following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake are classified into three different types. Subsequently, the sudden departure mechanism of each type of landslide is analyzed, thereby providing a new method for research on the sudden departure mechanism of high-speed landslides.

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Change history

  • 10 May 2019

    The original article has been published inadvertently with some errors in Fig. 1 and a keyword.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 41672295), the National Program on Key Basic Research Project of China (973 Program) (Grant no. 2013CB733201) and the Science and Technology Project of the Department of Transportation of Sichuan Province (Grant no. 2015B1-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, No. 111, North 1st Section, 2nd Ring Road, Chengdu, 611756, Sichuan, China

    Xiaoyan Zhao, Kai Hu & Houtian Hu

  2. Department of Geology, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR, 97207-0751, USA

    Scott F. Burns

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  1. Xiaoyan Zhao
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  2. Kai Hu
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  3. Scott F. Burns
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  4. Houtian Hu
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Correspondence to Houtian Hu.

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Zhao, X., Hu, K., Burns, S.F. et al. Classification and sudden departure mechanism of high-speed landslides caused by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Environ Earth Sci 78, 125 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8083-9

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Keywords

  • High-speed landslides
  • Classification
  • Sudden departure mechanism
  • Landslide–earthquake