Stability assessment of Jinlong village landslide, Sichuan

The Jinlong village landslide is located in Zitong County, Sichuan and approximately 150 km east of Wenchuan. The landslide has exhibited creep deformation for nearly 30 years. Field investigations indicated that the slope deformation was caused by the combined effects of unfavorable topographic and geological conditions and earthquakes. The sliding surface is along a contact between silty clay and mudstone. The Wenchuan earthquake accelerated the creep, causing bulging of the ground surface. Shear test results of the silty clay near the sliding surface indicated that the residual strength is consistent with the stability state of the landslide. The factors of safety were calculated using the limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the method of fast Lagrangian analysis of continua in two dimensions. The results using the LEM indicate that the stability is clearly affected by seismic shaking, and when the peak ground acceleration is 0.08g, the slope reaches the limit state. The shear failure surface given by numerical simulation develops on the contact between the clay and silty mudstone, which confirmed the assumed sliding surfaces’ location using the LEM.