Toppling is the foremost failure pattern of anaclinal rock slopes, and deep-seated toppling deformations (DSTDs) are common on high anaclinal slopes on the sides of gorges in western China. The DSTDs can develop to depths of more than 200 m, and may show distinct signs of zonal failure. Many DSTDs undergo transformation to large landslides involving rock volumes of more than 106 m3. However, the conditions for the formation and the basic evolving processes of DSTDs remain unclear. This study seeks to develop an inventory to classify the distribution, and the conditioning factors which govern the formation and deformation modes of DSTDs in western China and to analyze the effect of the geological and geomorphological variables on the toppling intensities. To this end, forty-nine DSTDs were analyzed. The results indicate that DSTDs in western China are commonly distributed along large deeply incised rivers in the southeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. The steep-dip anaclinal metamorphic soft or soft-hard-interbedded strata with near parallel strikes in the river channel, V-shaped deeply incised river channels, and convex slopes are favorable conditions for the formation of DSTDs in these settings. The dip angle, the gradient, and the height of most slopes which develop DSTDs are 60–90°, 30–50°, and 200–800 m, respectively. There is a highly positive relationship between the depth of toppling and the height of the slope. The toppled rock masses can be classed as extremely intense, intense, moderate, and weak toppling zones characterized by complete block detachment, tensile-shear fracture, tensile fracture, and reverse slip along foliations, respectively. Each zone corresponds to a specific range of the dip angle of the toppled strata, the aperture of the tensile cracks, the P-wave velocity, the state of rock weathering, and the degree of unloading. The extremely intense and the intense toppling zones tend to evolve into sliding failures. Overall, 94% of the DSTDs were derived from flexural toppling and 33% have developed into large landslides.
The causes of earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area are complex. In order to study the cause of earthquakes happening in the region, we calculated the source parameters of 394 ML ≥ 2.0 earthquakes occurring in Three Gorges reservoir area based on waveform data observed by the regional seismic network of Hubei Province and Three Gorges, obtained the apparent stress spatial-temporal variation map of Three Gorges reservoir area, and analyzed apparent stress spatial-temporal variation characteristics before and after the main earthquakes in the Three Gorges reservoir area. The results show that:1)Before the Badong ML5.5, Zigui ML4.7 and Zigui ML5.1 earthquake, high apparent stress of earthquakes with different magnitudes is concentrated in Xinhua-Shuitianba Fault and Gaoqiao Fault. The distribution of high value area shows the high degree of synergism before the earthquake and the scattering after the earthquake, which indicates that the area accumulated a high stress before the earthquake, and the fault was in a locked state; 2)In the study area, the apparent stress before and after the earthquake showed significant rise in the first and then decline, the earthquake occurred in the process of rising; 3)Apparent stress depth profiles show that apparent stress at different depths has a positive correlation with the size of magnitude of earthquake, and the phenomenon of "small magnitude and strong apparent stress" did not appear. The small earthquakes occurring after the major earthquakes in the study area belong to low strain release under the background of low stress release, and there are no new apparent stress anomaly concentration areas appearing, this indicates that the Badong-Gaoqiao Fault, Zhoujiashan-Niukou Fault and Zigui Xiannushan Fault have been effective in releasing after the Badong earthquake and Zigui earthquakes and the probability of destructive earthquake is small on these faults. 相似文献