Continual erosion of bare rocks after the Wenchuan earthquake and control strategies

The newly bared rocks created by the Wenchuan earthquake are undergoing continual intensive erosion in the form of detachment and movement of individual grains. Grain erosion is defined as the phenomenon of breaking down bare rocks under the action of insolation and temperature change, detachment of grains from the rockwalls by wind, flow down of grains on the slope under the action of gravity, and accumulation of grains at the toe of the mountain, forming a deposit fan. The Wenchuan earthquake, which occurred in Sichuan on May 12, 2008, caused thousands of avalanches and landslides and left scars on slopes and a huge area of bare rocks. Grain erosion causes flying stones, injured humans and resulted in numerous slope debris flows. The process of grain erosion and strategies to limit the erosion were studied by field investigations and field experiments. According to these field investigations and field studies, the most serious grain erosion occurs in spring and early summer when it is very dry. Rocks are broken down to grains under the action of insolation and temperature change. Then, wind blows the grains from the bare rock down slope. Experimental results showed that the amount of grains blown down by wind per area of rock surface per unit time is proportional to the fourth power of the wind speed. However, the size of the grains blown down by wind increases linearly with the wind speed. An experiment proved that grain erosion can be controlled with two moss species. Moss spores were mixed with clay suspension and splashed on bare rocks. The moss species germinated on the rock surface in one month and greened the bare rocks in two months. The moss layer protected the rocks from insolation and mitigated the effects of temperature change, thus effectively mitigated grain erosion.