Landslide

----What is a landslide?

A landslide is a movement of a mass of rock, earth or debris down a

slope due to gravity.

Landslides belong to a group of geological processes referred to as

MASS MOVEMENT: mass movement involves the outward or downward
movement of a mass of slope forming material, under the influence of gravity.

Landslide forms are distinguishable from other forms of mass

movement by the presence of distinct boundaries and rates of
movement perceptibly higher than any movement experienced
on the adjoining slopes.

Image commonly used to illustrate the parts of a landslide

(from Varnes, 1978)

The uppermost part is the depletion area (also: erosional,

depletion or failure zone) where the slope material has failed
and becomes displaced downslope. The displaced mass may remain close to the
depletion area or it may continue to travel downslope, along a transport track, ending in
an accumulation zone or acting as a supply to other geomorphic agents (e.g. river, sea,
glacier etc.). The distance travelled by the landslide material (run out) is a specific
characteristic of each type of landslide.

Landslide deposits range in texture from dislodged blocks of intact source material to
highly fragmented sediments forming a poorly sorted, unstratified deposit.

Seven states of activity are recognized for ladslides and they can be classified by 2
main categories:

1. Active: landslide has moved within the last twelve months,

2. Inactive: landslide has not moved within the last twelve months.

In detail, landslides can be:

 Active: landslide is currently moving.

 Suspended: landslide has moved within the last twelve months but is not active
at present.
  Reactivated: landslide is active after a period of inactivity.
 Dormant: inactive landslide that can be reactivated by its original causes or by
other causes.
 Abandoned: inactive landslide that is no longer affected by its original causes.
 Stabilised: inactive landslide thanks to remedial/mitigation measures.
 Relict: inactive landslide which developed under climatic or geomorphological
conditions considerably different from the current ones. It is very unlikely that it
can reactivate under the present conditions.

---What types of landslides are there ?Landslide forms and dynamics are very diverse
and consequently many classifications can be considered. The main criteria, widely
used to classify landslides are: the type of movement (e.g. fall, topple, slide, spread and
flow); the nature of the slope material involved (e.g. rock, debris, earth); the form of the
surface of rupture (e.g. curved or planar); the degree of disruption of the displaced
mass; the rate of movement.

The latter criterion can be of highly practical importance since it indirectly expresses the
chance that people have to escape at the onset of the phenomenon.

Rates of movement for different types of landslide are highly variable:

 Some landslides record only a few centimetres of movement a year, sustaining

this rate for decades.
 Certain debris flows have recorded velocities of 100 km/h while large rock
avalanches are capable of reaching velocities of 350 km/h.  The Randa rock falls
occurred on 18 April and 9 May 1991 in the Mattertal, near Randa, Switzerland.
The events blocked the road, railway and river which have subsequently been
diverted (Photo by B. Holl, 1995)

 --- Why do landslides occur? Conditioning factors

 Morphological features: slope geometry (i.e. its height, length, shape,
slope angle and aspect).
  Geological factors: nature of the soil parent materials or lithology (e.g..
clay, limestone, weak material, weathered material) and structure and
discontinuities (e.g. bedding planes, schistosity and foliation planes, faults,
fractures).
 Landcover: such as forest, natural grasslands, pastures, arable lands,
permanent crops, bare rocks..
 Triggering factors:
 Physical processes: including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, climatic
conditions (abnormally heavy rainfalls, snow melt, freeze and thaw).
 Geomorphologic processes: such as fluvial or wave erosion at the toe of
the slope, deposition, loading.
 Man-made processes: including terracing, vibration, deforestation, the
exploitation of materials or water tables, excavation, road construction,
mining and quarrying, loading.
 Internal causes, which are related to resisting forces.
 They lead to the failure of the slope without the intervention of perceptible
changes on the surface; they are in fact causes which reduce the
material's shear strength. The internal causes which condition the
instability of a slope are geological factors, morphological features and
climatic conditions.
 External causes, which are related to driving forces (e.g. gravity, water through
flow, pressure).
 They determine an increase of the shear stresses by means of more or
less evident modifications of slope morphology. Among these processes
the following are particularly important: Undercutting due to the erosion of
a watercourse or to the excavation for road construction, exploitation of
quarries or open pits, overloading, removal of lateral support, lateral
pressure, tectonic activity, effect of vegetation.

-----Where do landslides occur? subaerial (processes taking place above ground

level, with effects on objects on the ground) or
 subaqueous.
 subaerial (processes taking place above ground level, with effects on objects on
the ground) or
 subaqueous.

-----What are the consequences of landslides?

Landslide hazard is generally neglected (at global scale) with respect to other types of
hazards such as seismic and volcanic hazards, as it is mostly an occasional
phenomenon, of low amplitude and limited effects. But some landslides can cause
extensive and costly damage because of their diversity, their frequency and their wide
geographic distribution. These consequences could be:

 direct (i.e. building or road damages);

  indirect (i.e. perturbations, disruptions of railway, road traffic) with long-term
economic losses after the event.

---- Can the causes of landslides be influenced by human behaviour?

Man-made processes (such as terracing, vibration, deforestation, the exploitation
of materials or water tables, excavation, road construction, mining and quarrying,
loading) can influence the triggering of mass movements acting on the landslides
external causes.
 Rapid subsidence (the vertical rapid/slow collapse of the ground) is a brutal
spontaneous collapse producing sinkholes or shafts of a more or less large
extent (diameter from few meters to several hectares) and at variable depth (from
few meters to many hundreds of meters). Rapid subsidence can occur after a
progressive subsidence.
---Can landslides be predicted?

 heavy rainfall over a short period;

 cumulative rainfall over a period of varying duration with establishment of a
triggering threshold;
 cumulative rainfall over a period of varying duration without identification of a
triggering threshold.
he great diversity of the phenomena indicates that the conditions triggering them cannot be
uniform. Instability can even occur following relatively dry months, whether or not they are
preceded by heavy annual rainfall. Conversely, heavy rainfall in earlier years or decades can be
enough to trigger instability even if little rain has fallen over the preceding years. The type of
landslide, of course, plays a fundamental role in this relationship.

 ----Is there any way to prevent landsllides? Prevention of landslides in general,

comprises several successive stages.

1. Investigations must be carried out in order to identify the sectors prone to slide.
2. These investigations lead to slide hazard assessment.
3. Then, elements at risk are identified and their vulnerability is assessed in order to
include slide hazard in territorial planning.

The result is a zoning map which defines terrains which can be built or not, according to
the degree of hazard and vulnerability.

Prevention of subsidence, as for landslides in general, corresponds to a step comprising

several successive stages sometimes requiring adapted techniques to seek cavities.
The following stages are classically retained:

1. Preliminary recognition allows an identification of the sectors prone to

subsidence.
 2. Detection of the voids starting from a selection of specific hazard zones
(achieved in stage 1), to precisely locate voids and decompressing zones
(surfaces and volume)
andslide consequences can be mitigated by protective and repairing methods.

-----Is there any way to mitigate landslide consequences? Active defence

tackles the causes of the active or potential slide and mainly involves deep
drainage or reforestation;
 Passive defence deals with the materials which are or may be in movement,
which generally involve terracing, reprofiling and retaining structures.
 “hard” methods (highly expensive but generally efficient) consisting in the
reinforcement of the building;
 "light” methods (less expensive and often sufficient) consisting in positive actions
undertaken in the surrounding of the building.
Protetcion
 Prior to the event
Try to learn whether landslides have occurred in your area by contacting Public
Administration Offices and contact your local Civil Protection to learn about the
emergency response and evacuation plans for your area and prepare your own
emergency plans.
 During the event
1. If you are inside a building (for example in the classroom):
a) don't rush outside, stay where you are;
b) take shelter under a table, below the architrave, or near the bearing
walls;
c) don't use lifts;
d) stay away from windows, doors with glass and cupboards.
2. If you are outdoors:
a) Move away from buildings, trees, streetlights, electric cables and
telephone line;
b) don't walk or drive along a road where a landslide has recently
occurred;
c) Don't venture out on a landslide body; d) Do not enter inside houses
involved in a landslides before a thorough assessment by experts.
apping can be defined as:

----What types of maps on landslides exist?

 direct, when the landslide extent and distribution are
recognised on a geomorphological basis with the aim of
extrapolating slope stability assessments to the rest of the
investigated area;
 indirect, when the possibility of landslide occurrence is
assessed with or without consideration of landslide
distribution.