Abstract
A rainfall-induced complex landslide occurred on April 4, 2013, in Wanzhou County, Three Gorges Reservoir, China. Approximately 1.5 × 106 m3 of earth and rock mass slid over a distance of ~ 30 m, destroying residential buildings and rural roads. We perform a comprehensive assessment of the cause of this landslide using field surveys, borehole drillings, and interpretations of aerial photographs. This landslide exhibited a complex failure mode in which the upper part of the earth slope first deformed and slid along geotechnical interfaces. This then triggered the slide of the lower part of the flysch bedding rock. In this study, the landslide mass was divided into nine separate blocks considering their internal geological features and movements. The study also shows that antecedent rainfall, in association with the geological and morphological features of the steep slope, the presence of weak interlayers, and human interventions such as slope excavations, jointly caused this disaster. This well-observed event study facilitates comprehensive recognition of the deformation characteristics and failure mechanisms of rainfall-induced complex landslides and also provides an insight into landslide hazard mitigation.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Wanzhou Geological Environment Monitoring Station and the Nanjiang Hydrogeological Engineering Geological Team for providing us the valuable data. We also thank Prof. Kunlong Yin, Prof. Bo Chai from China University of Geosciences, and Prof. Steven N. Ward from University of California, Santa Cruz for their significant contributions in improving this manuscript.
Funding
This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41907234 and 41907237), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (CN) (grant numbers 2017JQ4010 and 2018JQ4041), Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China (CN) (grant number 2017M613033), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD (grant numbers 300102219107 and 300102219104).
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Wang, J., Xiao, L., Zhang, J. et al. Deformation characteristics and failure mechanisms of a rainfall-induced complex landslide in Wanzhou County, Three Gorges Reservoir, China. Landslides 17, 419–431 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01317-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01317-1