Characteristics and mechanisms of coupled road and rainfall-induced landslide in Sichuan China

Abstract

Field reconnaissance, geological mapping and photographic interpretation are utilized to study the failure mechanisms of July 2 catastrophic debris slide in 2017. The results suggested that the landslide was a reactivation of an ancient landslide after periods of relative dormancy, as manifestation of a retrogressive motion, which is triggered by the continuous engineering excavation as leads to rock mass unloading and decrease of mechanical properties of rock–soil mixture. The reactivated zone dominantly spread on the upper part of the ancient landslide area. The frequent tectonic movements rendered the potential landslide zone by fragmenting the structure. The fractured and fissile rock mass became further weakened by incessant rainfall that finally led to the failure of the rock mass.

Keywords:

• Leibo landslide
• fractured basalt
• road and rainfall-induced
• tectonic movement

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Mohammad Rezania of University of Warwick, United Kingdom for him constructive advices and language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study is financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2018YFC1505401], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41672283, 41731285], the China Scholarship Council [201808060557] and the School of Engineering of University of Warwick for PhD scholarship [1795826].