February floods in the lower North Island, 2004: Catastrophe – causes and consequences

Abstract: The February 2004 Manawatu floods in New Zealand were the result of a naturally occurring, although unusual, storm. Up to 300 mm of rain fell on the already saturated ground of the lower North Island over two days, generating substantial and rapid runoff from catchment slopes. Rivers rose quickly, inundating unprotected farmland and properties and in places breaching stopbanks. There was widespread slope failure in the hill country of the lower North Island, affecting an area of ca. 7500 km². Slopes under scrub, plantation forest and native bush were not as badly affected as those under pasture, where slopes typically failed by shallow translational landsliding. Flooding caused catastrophic channel change in a number of small to medium sized channel systems in the upland fringes. Whilst the occurrence of landsliding and channel changes during an extreme event such as this is natural, the intensity of both landsliding and channel erosion was exacerbated by human activity within the catchments.     

The effect of glaciation on the intensity of seismic ground motion

Seismicity is known to contribute to landscape denudation through its role in earthquake‐triggered slope failure; but little is known about how the intensity of seismic ground motions, and therefore triggering of slope failures, may change through time. Topography influences the intensity of seismic shaking – generally steep slopes amplify shaking more than flatter slopes – and because glacial erosion typically steepens and enlarges slopes, glaciation may increase the intensity of seismic shaking of some landforms. However, the effect of this may be limited until after glaciers retreat because valley ice or ice‐caps may damp seismic ground motions. Two‐dimensional numerical models (FLAC 6.0) were used to explore how edifice shape, rock stiffness and various levels of ice inundation affect edifice shaking intensity. The modelling confirmed that earthquake shaking is enhanced with steeper topography and at ridge crests but it showed for the first time that total inundation by ice may reduce shaking intensity at hill crests to about 20–50% of that experienced when no ice is present. The effect is diminished to about 80–95% if glacier ice level reduces to half of the mountain slope height. In general, ice cover reduced shaking most for the steepest‐sided edifices, for wave frequencies higher than 3 Hz, and when ice was thickest and the rock had shear stiffness well in excess of the stiffness of ice. If rock stiffness is low and shear‐wave velocity is similar to that of ice, the presence of ice may amplify the shaking of rock protruding above the ice surface. The modelling supports the idea that topographic amplification of earthquake shaking increases as a result of glacial erosion and deglaciation. It is possible that the effect of this is sufficient to have influenced the distribution of post‐glacial slope failures in glaciated seismically active areas. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

滑坡工程的稳定性评价与灾害治理

主要阐述某场地设施设备受临边滑坡的威胁,对该滑坡进行勘察,稳定性验算,滑坡形成原因分析,综合评价,提出治理方案。     

本溪市后湖滑坡治理意见

在对本溪市后湖滑坡地质环境条件、滑坡结构特征及其稳定性分析的基础上,依据滑坡治理的目标与原则,提出了以预应力锚索为主剥离为辅的加固治理方案和以剥离为主排水为辅的剥离治理方案。通过方案比选确定采用控爆剥离方案,并对控制爆破保证施工安全提出了具体要求。同时,对剥岩后新形成的边坡稳定性进行了分析论证。     

新疆西克尔露头区中下奥陶统塌体特征及成因分析

通过对塔里木盆地柯平隆起西克尔地区中下奥陶统露头21号点塌体几何尺度的观测、岩性和岩相的观察描述、断裂(裂隙)系统的分析、塌体与围岩地层及围岩地层之间的关系分析,结果表明该塌体不具岩溶垮塌的特征,而具有山体滑坡的性质,具体表现为塌体水平向运动的剪切帚状节理及与围岩间的边界断裂、山体整体运动滑塌的地层完整性、山体崩塌-倒塌、滑塌的似角砾岩及不同围岩间的地层产状的变化。对山体成因的分析表明,山体在滑坡过程中经历了崩塌-倒塌、滑塌作用。其滑坡可能原因是塌体位于古岩溶洼地的一端,这为滑坡提供了地质条件;而加里东期走滑断裂的后期活动成为山体滑坡的触发因素。     

滑坡发生时间预报分析

系统论述了滑坡监测资料的整理方法：滤波和等时化。讨论了滑坡运动响应的主要组成成分。重点阐述了滑坡发生时间预报的理论基础，此基础不同于一般物理方程建立的思路，而是直接来源于观察和经验总结，并抽象为一定的数学模型。单次滑坡发生的整个过程包括孕育、如速、减速、停止等4个阶段，滑坡发生时间则指加速向减速转换的特征时间点，此点是滑坡爆发的峰值点，也是需要预报的特征时间。能够反映滑坡如此运动过程的典型数学函数是Pearl曲线，本质上此S型曲线与系统有阻尼的自由振动微分方程是一致的，也与生物群体演化的虫口方程一致，它们都共同反映了物质运动的一般规律，因此可以用来预测滑坡运动过程。直接运用一般力学报分方程描述滑坡运动过程的困难在于缺乏对滑体系统力学参数的精确把握，直接运用Logistic虫口微分方程则存在模型参数识别的困难，作者还发现某些误用灰色系统理论对Verbulst非线性方程，参数进行辩识。文末，为展示方法而不强调结果，以拥有10a监测资料的某滑坡为例，分析预报了滑坡活动过程，并进行了预测结果的数学检验。     

Drainage Density and Relative Relief in Humid Steep Mountains with Frequent Slope Failure

Previous studies in Japanese mountains have shown that drainage density (D) correlates negatively with relief (R) and the erosion rate (E), whereas elsewhere both R and E correlate positively with D. To investigate the inconsistency, this paper compares two types of D–R relations for eight mountain river basins in central Japan. R is computed from a digital elevation model for 1109 morphometric samples of area 0·5 km × 0·5 km. Drainage networks in these cells were first constructed by map criteria applied previously in Japan — deeply notched V-shaped contours with an angle <53°. The resulting D correlates negatively with R, confirming preceding studies. When drainage lines along shallower hollows were added, however, the calculated D essentially constant. These relations arise from active landsliding in high-relief terrains, which has eroded steep channel banks into gentle ones. The decline of channel banks with increasing R is accelerated in terrains underlain by soft rocks, because of rapid erosion. The constant D for all the drainage lines indicates a uniform frequency or spacing of ridges and hollows on hillslopes in rugged humid mountains. Because the D–R and D–E relations for Japan reflect a uniquely Japanese physiographic setting characterized by frequent landsliding, they differ from those relations for other regions where channelization by gullying predominates. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interpreting erosion rates from cosmogenic radionuclide concentrations measured in rapidly eroding terrain

A combination of numerical analysis and ¹⁰Be concentrations measured in sediment samples from the high‐relief Torrente catchment, southern Spain, allows us to investigate the sampling requirements for determining erosion rates using cosmogenic nuclides in high‐relief, landslide‐dominated terrain. We use simple modelling to quantify the effect of particle spalling and/or landsliding on erosion rates determined using a cosmogenic in‐situ produced isotope. Analytical results show that the cosmogenic nuclide concentration of a surface experiencing regular detachment of a grain or block may be considered to be in steady state, and ‘in‐situ’ erosion rates estimated, when an appropriate number of spatially independent samples are amalgamated. We present equations that enable calculation of the number of bedrock samples that must be amalgamated for the estimation of mean erosion rates on an outcrop experiencing regular detachment of a grain or chip of thickness L every T years. Our findings confirm that mean catchment erosion rates may be reliably estimated from ¹⁰Be concentrations in fluvial sediment in high‐relief rapidly eroding terrain. These catchment‐wide integrated erosion rates can be calculated where erosion is primarily accomplished through shallow (<3 m) spalling processes; where deep‐seated (>3 m) landslides are the dominant mode of erosion only minimum erosion rates can be determined. Lastly, we present erosion rate measurements from the Torrente catchment that reveal variation of two orders of magnitude (0·03–1·6 m ka^?1) quantifying the high degree of spatial variation in erosion rates expected within rapidly uplifting catchments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.