Landslides triggered by slipping-fault-generated earthquake on a plateau: an example of the 14 April 2010, Ms 7.1, Yushu, China earthquake

On 14 April 2010 at 07:49 (Beijing time), a catastrophic earthquake with Ms 7.1 struck Yushu County, Qinghai Province, China. A total of 2,036 landslides were interpreted from aerial photographs and satellite images, verified by selected field checking. These landslides cover about a total area of 1.194 km2. The characteristics and failure mechanisms of these landslides are presented in this paper. The spatial distribution of the landslides is evidently strongly controlled by the locations of the main co-seismic surface fault ruptures. The landslides commonly occurred close together. Most of the landslides are small; there were only 275 individual landslide (13.5 % of the total number) surface areas larger than 1,000 m2. The landslides are of various types. They are mainly shallow, disrupted landslides, but also include rock falls, deep-seated landslides, liquefaction-induced landslides, and compound landslides. Four types of factors are identified as contributing to failure along with the strong ground shaking: natural excavation of the toes of slopes, which mean erosion of the base of the slope, surface water infiltration into slopes, co-seismic fault slipping at landslide sites, and delayed occurrence of landslides due to snow melt or rainfall infiltration at sites where slopes were weakened by the co-seismic ground shaking. To analyze the spatial distribution of the landslides, the landslide area percentage (LAP) and landslide number density (LND) were compared with peak ground acceleration (PGA), distance from co-seismic main surface fault ruptures, elevation, slope gradient, slope aspect, and lithology. The results show landslide occurrence is strongly controlled by proximity to the main surface fault ruptures, with most landslides occurring within 2.5 km of such ruptures. There is no evident correlation between landslide occurrences and PGA. Both LAP and LND have strongly positive correlations with slope gradient, and additionally, sites at elevations between 3,800 and 4,000 m are relatively susceptible to landslide occurrence; as are slopes with northeast, east, and southeast slope aspects. Q4al-pl, N, and T3kn1 have more concentrated landslide activity than others. This paper provides a detailed inventory map of landslides triggered by the 2010 Yushu earthquake for future seismic landslide hazard analysis and also provides a study case of characteristics, failure mechanisms, and spatial distribution of landslides triggered by slipping-fault generated earthquake on a plateau.

[1]  Yin Yueping,et al.  RESEARCHES ON THE GEO-HAZARDS TRIGGERED BY WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE,SICHUAN , 2008 .

[2]  Distribution of Landslides Triggered by the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake and Long Runout Mechanism of the Takarazuka Golf Course Landslide , 1997 .

[3]  Distributions of landslides triggered by the Chi-chi Earthquake in Central Taiwan on September 21, 1999 [E] : Mountains and slopes(GEOMORPHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS (2001)From scientific papers published in Japan) , 2002 .

[4]  R. Jibson,et al.  A seismic landslide susceptibility rating of geologic units based on analysis of characteristics of landslides triggered by the 17 January, 1994 Northridge, California earthquake , 2000 .

[5]  E. Harp,et al.  Inventory of landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake , 1995 .

[6]  Yao Xin,et al.  Identification and analysis of secondary geological hazards triggered by a magnitude 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake , 2009 .

[7]  B. Khazai,et al.  Evaluation of factors controlling earthquake-induced landslides caused by Chi-Chi earthquake and comparison with the Northridge and Loma Prieta events , 2004 .

[8]  Meei-Ling Lin,et al.  A GIS-based potential analysis of the landslides induced by the Chi-Chi earthquake , 2004 .

[9]  Satoshi Fujiwara,et al.  Interpretation of landslide distribution triggered by the 2005 Northern Pakistan earthquake using SPOT 5 imagery , 2007 .

[10]  Qiuming Gong,et al.  Spatial distribution of landslides triggered by the 2008 Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, China , 2011 .

[11]  Chong Xu,et al.  Comment on “Spatial distribution analysis of landslides triggered by 2008.5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake, China” by Shengwen Qi, Qiang Xu, Hengxing Lan, Bing Zhang, Jianyou Liu [Engineering Geology 116 (2010) 95–108] , 2012 .

[12]  Chong Xu,et al.  GIS-based support vector machine modeling of earthquake-triggered landslide susceptibility in the Jianjiang River watershed, China , 2012 .

[13]  Mark A. Bauer,et al.  Landslides triggered by the 8 October 2005 Kashmir earthquake , 2008 .

[14]  Hiroyuki Nakamura,et al.  Mass movements caused by recent tectonic activity: The 1999 Chi‐chi earthquake in central Taiwan , 2003 .

[15]  Ming-Lang Lin,et al.  Statistical approach to earthquake-induced landslide susceptibility , 2008 .

[16]  Lewis A. Owen,et al.  GIS-based landslide susceptibility mapping for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake region , 2008 .

[17]  Josodhir Das,et al.  Satellite data in a rapid analysis of Kashmir earthquake (October 2005) triggered landslide pattern and river water turbidity in and around the epicentral region , 2007 .

[18]  T. Sekiguchi,et al.  Overlaying landslides distribution on the earthquake source, geological and topographical data: the Mid Niigata prefecture earthquake in 2004, Japan , 2005 .

[19]  Y. Ran,et al.  The MS7.1 Yushu earthquake surface rupture and large historical earthquakes on the Garzê-Yushu Fault , 2010 .

[20]  J. Weissel,et al.  Landslides triggered by the 1999 Mw7.6 Chi Chi earthquake in Taiwan and their relationship to topography , 2001, IGARSS 2001. Scanning the Present and Resolving the Future. Proceedings. IEEE 2001 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (Cat. No.01CH37217).

[21]  Chong Xu,et al.  Landslide hazard mapping using GIS and weight of evidence model in Qingshui River watershed of 2008 Wenchuan earthquake struck region , 2012, Journal of Earth Science.

[22]  Hiroshi P. Sato,et al.  Landslide inventories: The essential part of seismic landslide hazard analyses , 2011 .

[23]  H. Yamagishi,et al.  Comparison between the two triggered landslides in Mid-Niigata, Japan by July 13 heavy rainfall and October 23 intensive earthquakes in 2004 , 2007 .

[24]  C. Liao,et al.  Statistical Analysis of Factors Affecting Landslides Triggered by the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake, Taiwan , 2002 .

[25]  E. Harp,et al.  Landslides triggered by the Northridge earthquake , 1994 .

[26]  Xu Xiwei.  Wenchuan Earthquake-induced Landslides:an Overview , 2010 .

[27]  D. Keefer.  Landslides caused by earthquakes , 1984 .

[28]  L. Luzi,et al.  Rock falls induced by earthquakes: a statistical approach , 2002 .

[29]  Randall W. Jibson,et al.  Inventory of landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake , 1995 .

[30]  Masahiro Chigira,et al.  Geological and geomorphological characteristics of landslides triggered by the 2004 Mid Niigta prefecture earthquake in Japan , 2006 .

[31]  C. Westen,et al.  Distribution pattern of earthquake-induced landslides triggered by the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake , 2010 .

[32]  Kyoji Sassa,et al.  Analysis of a spatial distribution of landslides triggered by the 2004 Chuetsu earthquakes of Niigata Prefecture, Japan , 2007 .

[33]  C. F. Lee,et al.  Assessment of landslide susceptibility on the natural terrain of Lantau Island, Hong Kong , 2001 .