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Effect of particle crushing– and thermally induced pressurization on rockslide mobility

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Abstract

Large rockslides often exhibit long runout, suggesting a low mobilized shear resistance within their shear zone. Various weakening mechanisms are proposed to explain the hypermobility of rockslides. To describe a specific event, a single mechanism is usually invoked, which is thought to dominate the entire runout. Herein, with reference to largely coherent landslides with a water-saturated shear zone, we explore how the combined action of particle crushing and thermal pressurization might cause hypermobility by promoting pore-water pressure buildup. We develop a simple model based on mass and energy conservation for a block sliding on an inclined plane that we solve numerically. Parameter study is also applied to the model. The results indicated that these two mechanisms could have comparable magnitude, and their synergy might promote longer runout. We suggest that particle crushing could control the initial rapid acceleration, but its contribution may gradually fade as an ultimate particle size distribution is attained and thermally induced pressurization may become dominant. Particle crushing may lower the permeability and compressibility of the shear-zone material, enhancing the subsequent pressurization and runout.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during  the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the editors and reviewers for the helpful suggestions.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Project No.2022YFF0800604), the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.42090051), the CAS Original Innovation Program (grant No. ZDBS-LY-DQC039). G. Scaringi acknowledges support by the Fund for International Mobility of Researchers at Charles University (Project No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008495, key activity 1-PřF-GEOMOBIL, and Project No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/20_079/0017987, key activity MSCA-IF IV), and by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Grant No. 20-28853Y).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China

    Yu Deng, Xuanmei Fan & Dongpo Wang

  2. Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics, Faculty of Science, Prague, 12843, Czech Republic

    Gianvito Scaringi

  3. Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Siming He

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Siming He

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  1. Yu Deng
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  2. Xuanmei Fan
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  3. Gianvito Scaringi
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Correspondence to Siming He.

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Deng, Y., Fan, X., Scaringi, G. et al. Effect of particle crushing– and thermally induced pressurization on rockslide mobility. Landslides 20, 1535–1546 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02053-3

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