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Gravity Erosions on the Loess Gully Bank: Avalanche, Landslide, or Mudslide

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Experimental Erosion

Abstract

Gravity erosion is a dominant geomorphic process on the steep loess slopes. Here, we conducted rainfall simulation experiments to monitor occurrence and behavior of the mass failure on steep loess slopes. The results show that the quantity of soil loss caused by the avalanche and landslide was much more than that caused by the mudslide, and the avalanche was the most violent gravity erosion. As the slopes were eroded with five runs of rainfalls each at a duration of 48 mm, the total volume of avalanche, landslide, and mudslide were 150.9 × 103, 82.5 × 103, and 3.9 × 103 cm3/m, and accounted for 62, 36, and 2% of the total gravity erosion, respectively. Furthermore, the slope height and gradient had a remarkable positive correlation with the erosion amount. As a result, the avalanche and landslide, especially the former, played a crucial role in soil erosion on steep slope compacted by hand with loess.

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Xu, X., Zhu, T., Zhang, H., Gao, L. (2020). Gravity Erosions on the Loess Gully Bank: Avalanche, Landslide, or Mudslide. In: Experimental Erosion. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3801-8_9

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