Propagation of slip along frictional surfaces

The propagation of slip along a pre-existing frictional plane is formulated for the faults containing interstitial fluid. When normal and shear stresses satisfy the effective frictional law, a frictional sliding occurs stably or unstably, depending on the inhomogeneities of the surface. For a slip to rapidly sweep the surface, the pore pressure of fluid must exceed the critical value that is related to the physical or geometrical irregularities of the surface. If this condition fails, stable sliding is expected, analogous to a seismic fault creep. This prediction makes the role of water in seismic faulting more clear.     

Pore-fluid pressures and frictional heating on a fault surface

This study considers the effects of heat transfer and fluid flow on the thernal, hydrologic, and mechanical response of a fault surface during seismic failure. Numerical modeling techniques are used to account for the coupling of the thermal, fluid-pressure, and stress fields. Results indicate that during an earthquake the failure surface is heated to a tempeature required for the thermal expansion of pore fluids to balance the rate of fluid loss due to flow and the fluid-volume changes due to pore dilatation. Once this condition is established, the pore fluids pressurize and the shear strength decreases rapidly to a value sufficient to maintain the thermal pressurization of pore fluids at near-lithostatic values. If the initial fluid pressure is hydrostatic, the final temperature attained on the failure surface will increase with depth, because a greater pressure increase can occur before a near-lithostatic pressure is reached. The rate at which thermal pressurization proceeds depends primarily on the hydraulic characteristics of the surrounding porous medium, the coefficient of friction on the fault surface, and the slip velocity. If either the permeability exceeds 10^–15 m² or the porous medium compressibility exceeds 10^–8 Pa^–1, then frictional melting may occur on the fault surface before thermal pressurization becomes significant. If the coefficient of friction is less than 10^–1 and if the slip velocity is less than 10^–2 msec^–1, then it is doubtful that either thermal pressurization or frictional melting on the fault surface could cause a reduction in the dynamic shear strength of a fault during an earthquake event.     

热水条件下黑云母断层泥的摩擦强度与稳定性

黑云母是自然界常见的层状硅酸盐矿物,其摩擦系数不高且化学稳定性好,对其摩擦性质的关注可能会对弱断层的研究有所帮助.本次工作选取的实验温度条件对应于典型地壳强度模型中脆塑性转化带的范围,为300 ℃和400 ℃.有效正应力为200 MPa,孔隙水压包括10 MPa和30 MPa,在此条件下对黑云母模拟断层泥进行摩擦实验研究.实验得出黑云母的摩擦系数平均在0.36左右.速度依赖性随温度升高速度弱化的程度增强,表现为300 ℃为十分微弱的速度弱化,而在400 ℃出现了黏滑行为,代表了更强的速度弱化.显微结构中同时出现了脆性剪切变形和塑性扭折变形,但决定宏观力学性质的显然是脆性剪切变形.在黑云母存在的情况下,本研究的实验结果有助于理解大陆地壳脆塑性转化带中地震的可能性和弱断层深部的变形机制、宏观力学行为以及地震活动.     

FRICTIONAL PROPERTIES OF A NATURAL FAULT GOUGE FROM DRILLED CORES IN THE LONGMENSHAN FAULT ZONE CUTTING GRANITIC ROCK

In this paper, we report friction experiments performed on natural fault gouge samples embedded in granitic rock from drilled core by a project entitled "the Longmenshan Fault Shallow Drilling(LMFD)". Compared with other natural fault gouge, this yellow-greenish gouge(YGG)is dominantly chlorite-rich. The maximum content of chlorite reaches 47%in the YGG. To understand the frictional properties of the YGG sample, experiments were performed at constant confining pressure of 130MPa, with constant pore pressure of 50MPa and at different temperatures from 25℃ to 150℃. The experiments aim to address the frictional behavior of the YGG under shallow, upper crustal pressure, and temperature conditions. Compared with previous studies of natural gouge, our results show that the YGG is stronger and shows a steady state friction coefficient of 0.47~0.51. Comparison with previous studies of natural gouge with similar content of clay minerals indicates a sequence of strengths of different clay minerals:chlorite > illite > smectite. At temperatures up to 150℃ hence depths up to~8km in the Longmenshan region, the YGG shows stable velocity-strengthening behavior at shallow crustal conditions. Combined with the fact of strong direct velocity effect, i.e., (a-b)/a>0.5, faults cutting the present clastic lithology up to~8km depth in the Longmenshan fault zone(LFZ)are likely to offer stable sliding resistance, damping co-seismic rupture propagating from below at not-too-high slip rates. However, as the fault gouge generally has low permeability, co-seismic weakening through thermal pressurization may occur at high slip rates(>0.05m/s), leading to additional hazards.     

Response mechanism of post-earthquake slopes under heavy rainfall

This paper uses the catastrophic landslide that occurred in Zhongxing Town, Dujiangyan City, as an example to study the formation mechanism of landslides induced by heavy rainfall in the post-Wenchuan earthquake area. The deformation characteristics of a slope under seismic loading were investigated via a shaking table test. The results show that a large number of cracks formed in the slope due to the tensile and shear forces of the vibrations, and most of the cracks had angles of approximately 45° with respect to the horizontal. A series of flume tests were performed to show how the duration and intensity of rainfall influence the responses of the shaken and non-shaken slopes. Wetting fronts were recorded under different rainfall intensities, and the depth of rainfall infiltration was greater in the shaken slope than in the non-shaken slope because the former experienced a greater extreme rainfall intensity under the same early rainfall and rainfall duration conditions. At the beginning of the rainfall infiltration experiment, the pore water pressure in the slope was negative, and settling occurred at the top of the slope. With increasing rainfall, the pore water pressure changed from negative to positive, and cracks were observed on the back surface of the slope and the shear outlet of the landslide on the front of the slope. The shaken slope was more susceptible to crack formation than the non-shaken slope under the same rainfall conditions. A comparison of the responses of the shaken and non-shaken slopes under heavy rainfall revealed that cracks formed by earthquakes provided channels for infiltration. Soil particles in the cracks of slopes were washed away, and the pore water pressure increased rapidly, especially the transient pore water pressure in the slope caused by short-term concentrated rainfall which decreased rock strength and slope stability.     

龙门山断裂带金河磷矿剖面断层泥的低速至高速摩擦性质研究

本文对龙门山断裂带金河磷矿浅钻岩芯中的三种断层泥开展了低速到高速摩擦滑动的实验研究,并对实验变形样品开展了BET比表面积研究.摩擦实验在干燥和孔隙水压条件下开展,速率范围涵盖20 μm·s^-1~1.4 m·s^-1.实验结果显示,三种断层泥在干燥条件下的摩擦性质差别不大,但在孔隙水压条件下,三者的中低速摩擦强度与层状硅酸盐矿物的种类而非总含量紧密相关,蒙脱石和伊利石相比绿泥石更能有效地弱化断层.三种断层泥在孔隙水压条件下存在中低速率域的速度强化,暗示着对断层的加速滑动存在一定的阻碍作用.孔隙水压下,黄绿色和灰绿色断层泥的初始动态弱化非常迅速并伴随断层泥层的瞬时扩容,凹凸体急剧加热导致的局部热压作用可能是造成这种力学行为的物理机制.在经历高速滑动之后,三种断层泥在干、湿条件下的BET比表面积都显著降低,暗示着可能发生了颗粒烧结.中低速域内,孔隙水的存在使得断层泥呈现分散式的剪切变形,BET比表面积的增加因此比干燥条件下更加明显.对表面能的估算表明,颗粒磨碎所消耗的能量至多不超过摩擦力做功的8%,暗示着断层作用中颗粒磨碎所占的能量比例较低.     

THE GEOLOGICAL AND ROCK MECHANICAL DISTINCTION EVIDENCE BETWEEN STICK-SLIP AND CREEP IN HOST ROCK SEGMENTS OF FAULT

Paleo-seismic and fault activity are hard to distinguish in host rock areas compared with soft sedimentary segments of fault. However, fault frictional experiments could obtain the conditions of stable and unstable slide, as well as the microstructures of fault gouge, which offer some identification marks between stick-slip and creep of fault. We summarized geological and rock mechanical distinction evidence between stick-slip and creep in host rock segments of fault, and analyzed the physical mechanisms which controlled the behavior of stick-slip and creep. The chemical composition of fault gouge is most important to control stick-slip and creep. Gouge composed by weak minerals, such as clay mineral, has velocity weakening behavior, which causes stable slide of fault. Gouge with rock-forming minerals, such as calcite, quartz, feldspar, pyroxene, has stick-slip behavior under condition of focal depth. To the gouge with same chemical composition, the deformation mechanism controls the frictional slip. It is essential condition to stick slip for brittle fracture companied by dilatation, but creep is controlled by compaction and cataclasis as well as ductile shear with foliation and small fold. However, under fluid conditions, pressure solution which healed the fractures and caused strength recovery of fault, is the original reason of unstable slide, and also resulted in locking of fault with high pore pressure in core of fault zone. Contrast with that, rock-forming minerals altered to phyllosilicates in the gouges by fluid flow through degenerative reaction and hydrolysis reaction, which produced low friction fault and transformations to creep. The creep process progressively developed several wide shear zones including of R, Y, T, P shear plane that comprise gouge zones embedded into wide damage zones, which caused small earthquake distributed along wide fault zones with focal mechanism covered by normal fault, strike-slip fault and reverse fault. However, the stick-slip produced mirror-like slide surfaces with very narrow gouges along R shear plane and Y shear plane, which caused small earthquake distributed along narrow fault zones with single kind of focal mechanism.     

Numerical Models of Translational Landslide Rupture Surface Growth

—We analyze the initiation and enlargement of the rupture surface of translational landslides as a fracture phenomenon using a two-dimensional boundary-element method. Both processes are governed largely by the stress field and the pre-existing planes of weakness in a slope. Near the ground surface, the most compressive stress becomes either parallel or perpendicular to the slope, depending on the topography and regional stresses. The shear stress available to drive slope-parallel sliding in a uniform slope thus is small, and therefore pre-existing weaknesses are required in many cases for sliding. Stresses in a uniform slope favor the initiation of sliding near the slope base. Sliding can progress upslope from there in retrogressive fashion. Most slopes are not uniform and notches in a slope will concentrate stresses and generally promote sliding there. As the region of sliding at depth enlarges, the stress concentration near the edge of the area of slip will tend to rise. Stress concentrations can become sufficient to open fractures above and below a basal slide plane, in keeping with observations. If one tip of a slide plane intersects the ground surface, then stresses near the other tip can increase markedly, as can slip. Our analyses show that slope-parallel sliding along a plane at depth will cause downslope extension in the upslope half of a slide mass and shortening in the downslope half, consistent with observations. Displacement profiles that could be interpreted as rotational can result from sliding along such a plane, however careful analysis of surface deformation can be used to understand sliding at depth.     

The Mechanical Coupling of Fluid-Filled Granular Material Under Shear

The coupled mechanics of fluid-filled granular media controls the physics of many Earth systems, for example saturated soils, fault gouge, and landslide shear zones. It is well established that when the pore fluid pressure rises, the shear resistance of fluid-filled granular systems decreases, and, as a result, catastrophic events such as soil liquefaction, earthquakes, and accelerating landslides may be triggered. Alternatively, when the pore pressure drops, the shear resistance of these geosystems increases. Despite the great importance of the coupled mechanics of grain–fluid systems, the basic physics that controls this coupling is far from understood. Fundamental questions that must be addressed include: what are the processes that control pore fluid pressurization and depressurization in response to deformation of the granular skeleton? and how do variations of pore pressure affect the mechanical strength of the grains skeleton? To answer these questions, a formulation for the pore fluid pressure and flow has been developed from mass and momentum conservation, and is coupled with a granular dynamics algorithm that solves the grain dynamics, to form a fully coupled model. The pore fluid formulation reveals that the evolution of pore pressure obeys viscoelastic rheology in response to pore space variations. Under undrained conditions elastic-like behavior dominates and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and overall volumetric strain. Viscous-like behavior dominates under well-drained conditions and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and volumetric strain rate. Numerical simulations reveal the possibility of liquefaction under drained and initially over-compacted conditions, which were often believed to be resistant to liquefaction. Under such conditions liquefaction occurs during short compactive phases that punctuate the overall dilative trend. In addition, the previously recognized generation of elevated pore pressure under undrained compactive conditions is observed. Simulations also show that during liquefaction events stress chains are detached, the external load becomes completely supported by the pressurized pore fluid, and shear resistance vanishes.     

Limits on the validity of infinite length assumptions for modelling shallow landslides

The infinite slope method is widely used as the geotechnical component of geomorphic and landscape evolution models. Its assumption that shallow landslides are infinitely long (in a downslope direction) is usually considered valid for natural landslides on the basis that they are generally long relative to their depth. However, this is rarely justified, because the critical length/depth (L/H) ratio below which edge effects become important is unknown. We establish this critical L/H ratio by benchmarking infinite slope stability predictions against finite element predictions for a set of synthetic two‐dimensional slopes, assuming that the difference between the predictions is due to error in the infinite slope method. We test the infinite slope method for six different L/H ratios to find the critical ratio at which its predictions fall within 5% of those from the finite element method. We repeat these tests for 5000 synthetic slopes with a range of failure plane depths, pore water pressures, friction angles, soil cohesions, soil unit weights and slope angles characteristic of natural slopes. We find that: (1) infinite slope stability predictions are consistently too conservative for small L/H ratios; (2) the predictions always converge to within 5% of the finite element benchmarks by a L/H ratio of 25 (i.e. the infinite slope assumption is reasonable for landslides 25 times longer than they are deep); but (3) they can converge at much lower ratios depending on slope properties, particularly for low cohesion soils. The implication for catchment scale stability models is that the infinite length assumption is reasonable if their grid resolution is coarse (e.g. >25 m). However, it may also be valid even at much finer grid resolutions (e.g. 1 m), because spatial organization in the predicted pore water pressure field reduces the probability of short landslides and minimizes the risk that predicted landslides will have L/H ratios less than 25. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

硬石膏断层带摩擦稳定性转换与微破裂特征的实验研究

断层带摩擦稳定性转换及其对应的微破裂特征对于地震成核条件和慢地震机理研究具有重要的意义.本文利用双轴实验装置研究了硬石膏断层带摩擦稳定性的转换及其对应的应变变化、微破裂特征,并分析了实验标本的微观结构.实验结果表明,σ₂和加载点速度对断层滑动稳定性具有显著影响.在低σ₂条件下,硬石膏断层带出现不稳定滑动,变形以局部化的脆性破裂和摩擦为主;随σ₂的增加,断层由不稳定滑动向稳定滑动转换,断层带变形方式逐渐转变为分布式的破裂.在低σ₂条件下,硬石膏断层带在较低加载点速度下表现为速度强化且滑动稳定,在中等加载点速度下表现为速度弱化并伴有准周期性的黏滑,在较高加载点速度下又有转向速度强化的趋势,σ₂的提高使得速度弱化的范围逐渐减少,滑动趋于稳定.上述两次转换对应不同的微破裂特征,在较高速度下从速度弱化转换为速度强化时,断层滑动伴有能量较小但频度很高的微破裂活动,而在较低速度下从速度弱化转换为速度强化时,断层滑动伴有间歇性的微破裂,这与断层带的微观结构特征有较好的对应关系,表明其转换机制是不同的.     

How hydrological factors initiate instability in a model sandy slope

Knowledge of the mechanisms of rain‐induced shallow landslides can improve the prediction of their occurrence and mitigate subsequent sediment disasters. Here, we examine an artificial slope's subsurface hydrology and propose a new slope stability analysis that includes seepage force and the down‐slope transfer of excess shear forces. We measured pore water pressure and volumetric water content immediately prior to a shallow landslide on an artificial sandy slope of 32°: The direction of the subsurface flow shifted from downward to parallel to the slope in the deepest part of the landslide mass, and this shift coincided with the start of soil displacement. A slope stability analysis that was restricted to individual segments of the landslide mass could not explain the initiation of the landslide; however, inclusion of the transfer of excess shear forces from up‐slope to down‐slope segments improved drastically the predictability. The improved stability analysis revealed that an unstable zone expanded down‐slope with an increase in soil water content, showing that the down‐slope soil initially supported the unstable up‐slope soil; destabilization of this down‐slope soil was the eventual trigger of total slope collapse. Initially, the effect of apparent soil cohesion was the most important factor promoting slope stability, but seepage force became the most important factor promoting slope instability closer to the landslide occurrence. These findings indicate that seepage forces, controlled by changes in direction and magnitude of saturated and unsaturated subsurface flows, may be the main cause of shallow landslides in sandy slopes. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

热水条件下花岗质糜棱岩的摩擦滑动实验研究

为了探讨大陆地壳断层深部的力学性质,我们选择了采自红河断裂带的糜棱岩作为实验样品,进行热水条件下的高温高压摩擦滑动实验.实验在一个以气体为介质的高温高压三轴实验系统中进行.实验条件是：有效正应力为200 MPa;孔隙水压为30 MPa（在400 ℃到600 ℃之间为超临界水条件）;温度为100 ℃到600 ℃;轴向加载的速率范围从0.04 μm/s到0.2 μm/s再到1 μm/s.实验结果表明：（1）当温度小于300 ℃时,糜棱岩的摩擦强度随着温度的上升而增大;当温度大于300 ℃时,糜棱岩的摩擦强度随着温度的上升而减小.这种趋势和以往花岗岩的摩擦滑动数据基本一致;（2）糜棱岩在200 ℃和400 ℃时表现为速度弱化,其余温度下为速度强化;（3）糜棱岩与已有花岗岩的摩擦滑动数据并不完全一致;（4）花岗质糜棱岩速度弱化向速度强化转变的温度在430 ℃附近,以此我们可以推测：在变形机制为摩擦滑动的深部条件下,地震成核的深度范围可以比以往的估计更深.     

地震作用下黄土斜坡的稳定性分析预测

基于对中国西部黄土地区大量地震滑坡实例的考察分析,对影响黄土斜坡稳定性的各类因素尤其是地震因素进行了分析,讨论了黄土斜坡滑裂面的产生机制及几何特征．在此基础上提出了一种基于随机搜索法和遗传算法确定黄土斜坡最危险滑裂面,进而对区域黄土地震滑坡进行预测的方法．以回回川滑坡为例进行了验证．结果表明,该方法具有较好的效果和实用性．     

A study on water film in saturated sand

Water film can serve as a sliding surface and cause landslides on gentle slopes. The development of "water film" in saturated sand is analyzed numerically and theoretically based on a quasi-three-phase model. It is shown that stable water films initiate and grow if the choking state (where the fluid velocity decreases to near zero) remains steady in a liquefied sand column. Discontinuity can occur in pore water velocity, grain velocity and pore pressure after the initiation of a water film. However, the discontinuity and water film can disappear once the choking state is changed. The key to the formation of water film is the choking in the sand column caused by eroded fine grains.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE PROCESS OF INTERGRANULAR PRESSURE SOLUTION OF PLAGIOCLASE GOUGE UNDER HIGH TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE: METHOD AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS

To understand the mechanism of lower-crust earthquake and slow slips, it is necessary to study the frictional properties of mafic rocks and their major rock-forming minerals. Previous studies have performed a series of experimental researches on gabbro, basalt and their major constituents. According to the results of previous experiments, frictional sliding of plagioclase under hydrothermal conditions(100~600℃)shows a property of velocity weakening, and the experimental results show that both the direct rate effect parameter(a)and the healing effect parameter(b)increase with temperature, a typical feature for thermally-activated processes. Velocity weakening means property of a shear band that has a stronger friction healing effect than the direct rate effect in the rate and state friction constitutive framework, and the healing effect(b value)in constitutive relation mainly reflects the increase in contact area with time under hydrothermal conditions, with some minor effect of structural changes. Since the microphysical mechanism of feldspar minerals at the contacts is mainly brittle cataclasis for temperatures below 600℃, the significant frictional healing effect in this case can only be explained by the mechanism of pressure solution. In order to determine if the dissolution process of plagioclase actually occurs on the laboratory time scale, we conducted hydrostatic experiments on plagioclase powder samples under hydrothermal conditions whereby frequent contact switch between particles seen in frictional sliding experiments can be avoided, making the observation on the dissolution sites possible. Experimental temperatures were 400℃ and 500℃, with confining pressure of 90~150MPa, pore pressure of 30MPa, with 2mm initial thickness of fault gouge. The mechanical data show that a creep process occurred in the plagioclase fault gouge in the experimental temperature and pressure range; and the microstructures of the experiment show that precipitation of new grains is prevalent as the product of pressure solution process between plagioclase particles. At the same time, it is observed that the contact points have an appearance similar to fused, fuzzy structure as signatures of dissolution. The results of our experiments provide a definite experimental evidence for the healing mechanism in friction of plagioclase and for the theoretical relation between unstable slip and the pressure solution process. The results of the experiments are summarized as follows: (1)Drainage rate of pore water in plagioclase gouge was high in the first few hours of experiment, but gradually decreases over time for both temperature and pressure series of experiments slowing down to a steady state. This feature indicates that there is a creep process that evolves inside the plagioclase gouge. In the temperature-series experiments, the drainage rate of the pore water in the plagioclase gouge at 400℃ is relatively low than the cases for higher temperatures. Thus, the applied temperature is positively correlated with the creep of plagioclase gouge. (2)Scanning electron microscopy(SEM)observations of the experimentally deformed samples were performed on thin sections cut along the sample axis. Firstly, from the images of microstructure, it was found that the degree of particle fracture became more significant at a higher effective pressure, with smaller pore volume between particles. In the temperature-series experiments it was found that the degree of compaction of plagioclase gouge increased with increasing temperature. Precipitation of plagioclase grains in layered structures was generally observed in high-magnification images, indicating the presence of pressure solution processes. Contact points were also found to be in a state of ambiguity that seems to be a fused morphology, but the details of the structure remain to be determined by further observations. The above results indicate that the pressure solution process of plagioclase particles can occur on a typical laboratory time scale, and the results of this study provide robust experimental evidences for the theory that links between pressure solution and the mechanism of frictional healing and unstable slips for plagioclase.     

FRICTIONAL SLIDING OF PLAGIOCLASE GOUGE UNDER LOWER-CRUST TEMPERATURE AND RELATIVELY LOW EFFECTIVE NORMAL STRESS

The discovery of tremors on the lower crust portion of the San Andreas Fault has attracted more attention on the mechanical properties of the lower crust in recent years, and some experimental studies have been carried out to understand the mechanical behavior. Previous experiments under effective normal stresses of 200MPa have shown that pyroxene and plagioclase mineral separated from the gabbro and their mixtures all show velocity weakening in the lower-crust temperature range, which results in unstable slip when frictional sliding is the dominant deformation mechanism. This work is to examine whether the velocity-weakening behavior of plagioclase gouge also applies to relatively lower effective normal stress. Our experiments were performed under effective normal stress of about 100MPa, with a constant confining pressure control, with pore pressure of 30MPa and temperature of 100℃ to 600℃. We found that the frictional sliding of plagioclase are basically the same with the previous results obtained under effective normal stress of 200MPa, both of which show velocity weakening over the entire temperature range. The only difference is the out-of-trend drop of constitutive parameter a at 600℃ for the lower effective normal stress of 100MPa. It is thus concluded that reducing the effective normal stress has little effect on the sliding stability of plagioclase, and the previous conclusion made for mechanical behavior of the lower crust that unstable slips are possible therein also applies to the lower effective normal stress of 100MPa.     

ESTIMATING THE MAGNITUDE OF TECTONIC STRESS BASED ON THE FRICTION CRITERIA OF FAULT AND ANALYSING THE PARAMETERS' INFLUENCE

Based on Zoback's method for estimating the tectonic stress magnitude and the two assumptions, we consider the conditions that three principal stresses are vertical principal stresses respectively(corresponding to three kinds of tectonic stress types). We deduced the formulae for estimating the tectonic stress magnitude by using the stress form factor and frictional strength of the fault and discussed the correlative influence of friction coefficient, pore pressure parameter and stress form factor on the stress value. When the maximum principal stress is approximately horizontal (when stress regime is strike-slip or reverse), the maximum principal stress (or the slope of stress increasing linearly with depth) is positively related with the friction coefficient and negatively related with the pore pressure coefficient. When the minimum principal stress is approximately horizontal (when stress regime is strike-slip or normal), the minimum principal stress (or the slope with depth) is negatively related to the friction coefficient, and positive to the pore pressure. Besides, these three parameters have great influence on the estimation of the tectonic stress magnitude. If the friction coefficient is too big and the pore pressure is too small, there could be a wide difference between the slope of the maximum principal stress increasing with depth and the slope of the minimum principal stress increasing with depth, which could lead to an unreasonable result. Our method is just an approximate estimation for the tectonic stress magnitude when crustal rocks have undergone brittle rupture or frictional sliding. The estimated results are not the tectonic stress magnitude when crust is in steady state.     

线性波浪加载下海底斜坡失稳机制的数值分析

基于大型有限元软件ABAQUS中的荷载模块,添加一阶波浪力载荷模式,并结合强度折减技术,实现波浪力作用下海底斜坡稳定性与失稳机制的弹塑性有限元数值分析。引入典型算例,利用先前提出的波浪荷载下海底斜坡稳定性的极限分析上限方法开展数值解的对比验证;在此基础上,通过深入地变动参数比较分析,探讨不同波长、波高和水深等波浪参数对计算结果的影响以及波浪力影响下海底斜坡潜在滑动面的变化规律,获得波浪荷载下海底斜坡失稳滑动机制的初步认识。     

Causes and mobility of large volcanic landslides: application to Tenerife, Canary Islands

Giant volcanic landslides are one of the most hazardous geological processes due to their volume and velocity. Since the 1980 eruption and associated debris avalanche of Mount St. Helens hundreds of similar events have been recognised worldwide both on continental volcanoes and volcanic oceanic islands. However, the causes and mobility of these enormous mass movements remain unresolved. Tenerife exhibits three voluminous subaerial valleys and a wide offshore apron of landslide debris produced by recurrent flank failures with ages ranging from Upper Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene. We have selected the La Orotava landslide for analysis of its causes and mobility using a variety of simple numerical models. First, the causes of the landslide have been evaluated using Limit Equilibrium Method and 2D Finite Difference techniques. Conventional parameters including hydrostatic pore pressure and material strength properties, together with three external processes, dike intrusion, caldera collapse and seismicity, have been incorporated into the stability models. The results indicate that each of the external mechanism studied is capable of initiating slope failures. However, we propose that a combination of these processes may be the most probable cause for giant volcanic landslides. Second, we have analysed the runout distance of the landslide using a simple model treating both the subaerial and submarine parts of the sliding path. The effect of the friction coefficient, drag forces and hydroplaning has been incorporated into the model. The results indicate that hydroplaning particularly can significantly increase the mobility of the landslide, which may reach runout distances greater than 70 km. The models presented are not considered definite and have mainly a conceptual purpose. However, they provide a physical basis from which to better interpret these complex geologic phenomena and should be taken into account in the prediction of future events and the assessment of landslide related hazards.