Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geohazards and Georisks
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1466751
This article is part of the Research Topic Monitoring, Early Warning and Mitigation of Natural and Engineered Slopes – Volume IV View all 16 articles

Study on the chain-type failure mechanism of large-scale ancient landslides

Provisionally accepted
Zixuan Li Zixuan Li 1Zhenwei Dai Zhenwei Dai 2*Shi Cheng Shi Cheng 3Zhe Yang Zhe Yang 1Anle Zhang Anle Zhang 3Qihui Xiong Qihui Xiong 4
  • 1 Institute of Geological Surve,China University of Geosciences,Wuhan 430074,China, Wuhan, Hebei Province, China
  • 2 Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey (Geosciences Innovation Center of Central South China), Wuhan, China
  • 3 College of Civil Engineering & Architecture, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China, Yichang, Hebei Province, China
  • 4 Chongqing Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration and Development Nanjiang Hydrogerlogy Engineering Geology Team,Chongqing 401121,China, Chongqing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Large-scale ancient landslides are widely distributed in Southwest China, yet their reactivation mechanisms remain complex and poorly understood. On July 25, 2020, one such landslide in Liujing Village, Wulong District, Chongqing, China, experienced reactivation. This event exhibited variable movement characteristics across different areas and times, ultimately manifesting as a chain-type failure. Combining field investigations and drilling works, this study describes the fundamental characteristics of the Zhongbao landslide and the variation rules of the seepage field and the stability by numerical simulations.. The failure mechanism is preliminarily revealed, and the failure influencing factors are discussed. The results show that, the landslide's progression was influenced by the stratigraphic lithology and the morphology of the sliding surface, resulting in two distinct turns during its movement. By analyzing the landslide's spatial morphology, direction of sliding, material composition, extent of the accumulation area, and dynamic behavior, we have categorized the Zhongbao landslide into five principal zones. The failure process can be segmented into four stages: initiation, shear-out, acceleration, and accumulation blockage. Heavy rainfall served as the primary trigger for the landslide, while the micro-topography of the sliding surface significantly influenced the failure dynamics. The insights gained from this study offer valuable guidance for understanding the reactivation mechanisms of similar chained ancient landslides in the geologically analogous regions of Southwest China.

    Keywords: Ancient landslide, Failure mechanism, Deformation characteristics, Numerical Analysis, GeoStudio

    Received: 18 Jul 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Dai, Cheng, Yang, Zhang and Xiong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhenwei Dai, Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey (Geosciences Innovation Center of Central South China), Wuhan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.