Scientific Reports · 2016 · 120 citations · 31 references
EngineeringEarth SciencesGeological EngineeringDigital Elevation ModelingEarthquake EngineeringGeotechnical EngineeringGeological ModelingGeotechnical Earthquake EngineeringGround Motion CharacterizationVolume EstimationEarthquake Induced Landslide HazardEarthquake-induced Landslide AssessmentEarthquake-induced LandslidesLandslide Prediction ModelingPeak Ground AccelerationSlope AspectSlope Aspect EffectsVolume Prediction Models
The study proposes three optimized models for estimating the total volume of landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan Mw 7.9 earthquake. Volumes of 1,415 landslide deposits were derived from pre‑ and post‑quake DEMs, and the conventional volume‑area power law and the three new models were fitted using both log‑transformed linear and original data nonlinear least‑squares methods, with the best model then applied to the full database except two largest events. The nonlinear least‑squares fit of the optimized model, which incorporates length, width, height, lithology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and slope aspect, outperforms other approaches and estimates the total volume of 196,007 landslides at approximately 1.2 × 10¹⁰ m³ of deposit material and 1 × 10¹⁰ m³ of source area, highlighting the need to revise the traditional power‑law relationship.
In this study, we proposed three optimized models for calculating the total volume of landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Mw 7.9 earthquake. First, we calculated the volume of each deposit of 1,415 landslides triggered by the quake based on pre- and post-quake DEMs in 20 m resolution. The samples were used to fit the conventional landslide "volume-area" power law relationship and the 3 optimized models we proposed, respectively. Two data fitting methods, i.e. log-transformed-based linear and original data-based nonlinear least square, were employed to the 4 models. Results show that original data-based nonlinear least square combining with an optimized model considering length, width, height, lithology, slope, peak ground acceleration, and slope aspect shows the best performance. This model was subsequently applied to the database of landslides triggered by the quake except for two largest ones with known volumes. It indicates that the total volume of the 196,007 landslides is about 1.2 × 10(10) m(3) in deposit materials and 1 × 10(10) m(3) in source areas, respectively. The result from the relationship of quake magnitude and entire landslide volume related to individual earthquake is much less than that from this study, which reminds us the necessity to update the power-law relationship.
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