Slumping and shallow faulting related to the presence of salt on the Continental Slope and Rise off North Carolina

Seismic reflection profiles and long- and medium-range sidescan sonar were used to investigate a salt diapir complex and area of slope instability near the base of the Continental Slope off North Carolina. Within the area of investigation three diapirs are bounded on their upslope side by a scarp 60 m high and 50 km long. The slope above the scarp is characterized by a series of shallow rotational normal faults. The bottom below the scarp is furrowed by slide tracks, which were probably carved by large blocks that broke off the scarp face and slid downslope leaving rubble and scree lobes.Extensive slumping in this area appears to be a result of uplift and faulting associated with salt intrusion, which has fractured and oversteepened the slope leading to instability and failure. Sharply defined slide tracks suggest that slope failure above the breached diapir complex is a continuing process, in contrast to much of the surrounding slope area where few instability features were observed.     

Modeling of rainfall-triggered shallow landslide

By integrating hydrological modeling with the infinite slope stability analysis, a rainfall-triggered shallow landslide model was developed by Iverson (Water Resour Res 36:1897-1910, 2000). In Iverson’s model, the infiltration capacity is assumed to be equivalent to the saturated hydraulic conductivity for finding pressure heads analytically. However, for general infiltration process, the infiltration capacity should vary with time during the period of rain, and the infiltration rate is significantly related to the variable infiltration capacity. To avoid the unrealistically high pressure heads, Iverson employed the beta-line correction by specifying that the simulated pressure heads cannot exceed those given by the beta line. In this study, the suitability of constant infiltration capacity together with the beta-line correction for hydrological modeling and landslide modeling of hillslope subjected to a rainfall is examined. By amending the boundary condition at ground surface of hillslope in Iverson’s model, the modified Iverson’s model with considering general infiltration process is developed to conduct this examination. The results show that the unrealistically high pressure heads from Iverson’s model occur due to the overestimation of infiltration rate induced from the assumption that the infiltration capacity is identical to the saturated hydraulic conductivity. Considering with the general infiltration process, the modified Iverson’s model gives acceptable results. In addition, even though the beta-line correction is applied, the Iverson’s model still produces greater simulated pressure heads and overestimates soil failure potential as compared with the modified Iverson’s model. Therefore, for assessing rainfall-triggered shallow landslide, the use of constant infiltration capacity together with the beta-line correction needs to be replaced by the consideration of general infiltration process.     

Left upstream slope design for the Çatalan Dam, Adana, Turkey and its behaviour under actual earthquake loading

An investigation and remediation of instability along upstream cut slopes for an earthfill dam in differentially weathered rock in southern Turkey is described. The major instability problem was a 45-m high and 200-m long previously cut slope next to the main axis of the dam, above the diversion tunnels and water outlet structures. The slope was first designed and excavated in 1986 based on the temporary berm approach. Rising water level in the reservoir would change the shear strength parameters and the pore-water pressure in the slope; thus, probable deep failure would damage the entrance of the diversion tunnels and water outlet structures, as well as the earthfill embankment of the dam. In June 1996, the slope face was re-excavated and protected against wave erosion by placement of a layer of rock riprap over a layer of bedding and a filter material. A strong earthquake (M_S = 6.2) occurred during a period of rapid drawdown in 27 June 1998. The slope remained stable, although numerous tension cracks developed in Quaternary terrace deposits near the reservoir area.     

岩质高边坡稳定性支持向量机预测方法研究

提出一种基于支持向量机的岩质边坡稳定性预测方法。该方法地很好的表达了岩质边坡稳定性与其影响因素之间的非线性映射关系,并应用该方法建立了相应的模型。预测结果表明,利用该方法进行岩质边坡稳定性预测是可行的、有效的。     

坡面溅蚀发生过程及其与坡度关系的模拟研究

通过人工模拟降雨试验,分别观测降雨过程中不同方向上溅蚀强度的变化,根据各影响因子间相互消长及相互制约的关系特点,分析了雨滴溅蚀发生的过程特征及其变化原因,从溅蚀过程的变化特点及溅蚀强度的变化规律比较,定量地探讨了坡度对雨滴击溅侵蚀的影响作用,得出了溅蚀强度与坡度因子之间的关系方程。     

四川泸定磨西台地第四纪冰水台地边坡地质灾害易发性研究

河流冲刷对第四纪软弱地层岸坡的地质灾害起到控制性作用。本文以磨西台地冰水堆积物岸坡为例,充分考虑河流与岸坡地质灾害之间的内在联系,基于对实测地质灾害的分析结果,采用Logistic监督分类方法,评价各环境因子（尤其是河流冲蚀特性因子）在河流岸坡稳定性评价中的作用,进而采用高相关的环境因子进行地质灾害易发性预测。研究表明,河流弯曲度、河流流量、岸坡坡度、河床宽度、岸坡宽度与地质灾害的发育相关性强,采用这些参数和Logistic模型预测的地质灾害易发性能很好的反映现状和未来地质灾害的发育特点,进而提出了磨西台地岸坡地质灾害防治的初步建议。     

Seismically induced slope instabilities and the corresponding treatments: the case of a road in the Wenchuan earthquake hit region

On May 12, 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province resulted in great loss of life and properties. Besides, abundant landslides and slope failures were triggered in the most seriously hit areas and caused disastrous damages to infrastructures and public facilities. Moreover, abundant unstable slopes caused by the quake have the potential to cause damages for a considerable long period of time. The variety of these slopes and the corresponding treatments are connected with the topographical and geological conditions of the sites. It is decided to document and identify some of these major slope instabilities caused by the earthquake and their treatments. The paper shows the condition of a road in Dujiangyan through in situ explorations. The case history showed significant implications to the reconstruction of the quake-hit regions and future disaster prevention and management works.     

Machine learning for pore-water pressure time-series prediction: Application of recurrent neural networks

Knowledge of pore-water pressure(PWP)variation is fundamental for slope stability.A precise prediction of PWP is difficult due to complex physical mechanisms and in situ natural variability.To explore the applicability and advantages of recurrent neural networks(RNNs)on PWP prediction,three variants of RNNs,i.e.,standard RNN,long short-term memory(LSTM)and gated recurrent unit(GRU)are adopted and compared with a traditional static artificial neural network(ANN),i.e.,multi-layer perceptron(MLP).Measurements of rainfall and PWP of representative piezometers from a fully instrumented natural slope in Hong Kong are used to establish the prediction models.The coefficient of determination(R^2)and root mean square error(RMSE)are used for model evaluations.The influence of input time series length on the model performance is investigated.The results reveal that MLP can provide acceptable performance but is not robust.The uncertainty bounds of RMSE of the MLP model range from 0.24 kPa to 1.12 k Pa for the selected two piezometers.The standard RNN can perform better but the robustness is slightly affected when there are significant time lags between PWP changes and rainfall.The GRU and LSTM models can provide more precise and robust predictions than the standard RNN.The effects of the hidden layer structure and the dropout technique are investigated.The single-layer GRU is accurate enough for PWP prediction,whereas a double-layer GRU brings extra time cost with little accuracy improvement.The dropout technique is essential to overfitting prevention and improvement of accuracy.     

船台滑道下含软弱层岸坡的空间稳定分析

芜湖江东船厂新建船台滑道位于有较厚软弱土层的岸坡上。本文采用三维有限元和刚体极限平衡理论结合的方法分析岸坡稳定, 对不同潜在滑动面进行探索, 求解最小安全系数及相应滑动面位置。分析结果已在施工实践中得到证实。