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Evolution characteristics of the Huangtupo landslide based on in situ tunneling and monitoring

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Abstract

Huangtupo landslide, volumetrically the largest, most complex landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir region of China, is a dangerous mass on which the district of Badong has been inadvertently situated. Risk remediation efforts include the construction of a large observational tunnel and monitoring system that are unique in the world. This tunnel and its side branches permit detailed mapping of its 3D structure while providing samples for laboratory analysis. The new investigations validate that the Huangtupo landslide is a composite of several independent landslides and that movement occurs along the major rupture zones as well as on interlayer sliding zones in the underlying Badong Formation. Uranium–thorium disequilibrium dating establishes that the northern part of the landslide, called the Riverside Slump, underwent at least two periods of movement at about 100 and 40 ka (ka stands for a thousand years). These events were induced by the steep slope created by the downcutting of the Yangzte River. The results from in situ displacement monitoring over a 7-year period confirm that the central part of the landslide is creeping at a slow, relatively stable rate of about 15 mm/year rather than being in a stage of acceleration under the protection of anchored concrete beams and other defense structures at its toe. Available data suggest that engineering measures can control the independent landslides that together constitute the huge Huangtupo mass, which will avoid the need for costly relocation of thousands of people.

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Acknowledgments

The work was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2011CB710600) and the Key National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41230637 and 41202198). The authors appreciate the help provided by friends during the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, 430074, Wuhan, China

    Huiming Tang, Changdong Li, Xinli Hu, Liangqing Wang, Yiping Wu & Yunan Li

  2. Three Gorges Research Center for Geo-hazard, Ministry of Education, 430074, Wuhan, China

    Aijun Su & Chengren Xiong

  3. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, USA

    Robert Criss

Authors
  1. Huiming Tang
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  2. Changdong Li
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  3. Xinli Hu
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  4. Aijun Su
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  5. Liangqing Wang
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  6. Yiping Wu
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  7. Robert Criss
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  8. Chengren Xiong
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  9. Yunan Li
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Correspondence to Huiming Tang.

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Tang, H., Li, C., Hu, X. et al. Evolution characteristics of the Huangtupo landslide based on in situ tunneling and monitoring. Landslides 12, 511–521 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0500-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0500-2

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