Landslide

The downward and outward movements of slope forming materials along surfaces of separation by falling, sliding and flowing at a faster rate is called landslide. The influence of gravity is a constant operation for landslide. Although landslides are primarily associated with mountainous regions, they can also occur in areas of low relief, especially in surface excavations for highways, building and open-pit mines. The geological history and human activites often cause unstable conditions that lead to slope failures. Usually they occur on steep slopes where hard and heavy rocks overlie softer. Landslide is one of the most effective and widespread mechanics by which landscape is developed.

Parts of a Typical Slide

A typical slide exhibits the following parts or regions: o Crown: The upper portion still in place from which solid rock soil materials are torn away from the rest of the slope. o Scarp: The steep wall of the undisturbed material below crown around the periphery of the slide material. o o Head: The upper part of the slide material. Slip Plane: The shear surface the surface of movement downhill of the slide material. o o o Flanks: Slides of a slide. Left flank and Right flank. Transverse Ridges: Terrace or step like pressure or compression ridges. Foot: The line of intersection of the lower part of the slip plane and the original ground surface. o o o o o Toe: The lower portion in which the rock or soil material is heaped upon. Length: Horizontal distance from crown to toe. Width: Horizontal distance from flank to flank. Height: Vertical distance, crown to toe. Depth: Thickness of the slide mass between crown and foot.

Causes of Landslide
The various factors to cause landslide are listed below: 1. Natural Factors: Steep slopes Undercutting of the banks by deeply incised rivers and streams. Extensive development of weak rocks such as phyllites, slates and schists; presence of calcareous inter layers in these rocks which leads to high porosity and void formation due to leaching and dissolution

Heavily fractured rocks because of intense folding and faulting. High weathering of the rocks. Concentrated precipitation. Seismic activity.

2. Anthropogenic Factors: Deforestation Improper land use. This includes: Agricultural practices on steep slopes Irrigation on steep and vulnerable slopes Overgrazing Quarrying for construction materials without considering the conditions of the terrain. Construction activites. These include construction of roads, canals in hill areas. During these actions, slope cutting action causes landslide. Triggering Factors The major causes of landslides are not the same as the causes of triggering of slides. The main triggering factors are: Cloud burst (200-1000 mm per day) Uncontrolled flow of water on slope surface from over flooded steep gullies Toe cutting may activate failure by over toppling of rock blocks or slides in colluviums.

Earthquake vibrations Blasting vibrations Flash flood due to glacier lake outburst/failure of landslide dams etc.

Among above mentioned triggering factors, earthquake and rainfall are the major landslide causing agents.

Earthquake induced Landslides

Earthquake usually causes many large scale landslides some of which block rivers forming lakes. In China, earthquake induced landslides were caused by 33.5% of the total shocks. (Feng and Guo 1985) Apart from the earthquakes, the environmental factors, such as geology and landform, play a vital role in the formation of landslides induced by earthquakes. That is why some smaller earthquakes induced large landslides than other large earthquakes. Geological structure and the lithological character of rocks influence the landslides. Landslides are commonly seen on the slopes. On slopes consisting of loosened limestone and igneous rocks, falls occur readily but on slopes consisting of clay stone, shale and phyllites, falls are few in number. The type of slope and the slope angle have a great influence upon landslides and falls. Straight slopes seldom have landslides and falls, but they are common the convex, concave and complex slopes. The places where the landslides or falls occur are mostly steeper areas of slopes. The statistical data gathered from the earthquake areas of China from 1973 to 1976 give us part of the story. Landslides were not found on slopes with a slope angle ranging from 30 to 50. In most cases, falls happened on slopes with a slope angle of 67 to 75. Such figures would be of great help in selecting a relatively safety zone in an earthquake prone area. The relative safety zone should be less than 25 in the mountain areas. The mountainous parts show seismically triggering slumps, debris slides and rock falls, whereas the Terai region suffers from spreads, liquefaction, quicksand conditions. Apart from these, the critical stage of toe undercutting of marginally stable slopes by floods and debris torrents as well as breaching of landslide dams, can be taken as secondary landslide triggers.

Rainfall induced Landslides

Rainfall is another significant landslide trigger. There is a direct connection between the amount of rainfall and the occurrence of landslides, which can be analyzed as: 1. If cumulative precipitation of the area amounts to about 50 mm to 100 mm in a day, and daily precipitation is more than 50 mm, somewhat small scale and shallow debris landslides will occur. 2. When the cumulative precipitation over 2 days amount to about 150 mm and daily precipitation is about 100 mm, the number of landslides has a tendency to increase in size. 3. When cumulative precipitation exceeds 250 mm over two days and has an average intensity of more than 8 mm per hour in one day, the number of large and vast landslide increase sharply.

Prevention and Control (Mitigation) of Landslides

The prevention and control works actually carried out in the landslide areas are based on the following concepts. Firstly, a great deal of importance is placed on human life, secondly on public structures and buildings, road traffic and prevention of river flooding if a landslide dams a river. For convenience, landslides can be divided into two groups: those occurring in artificial slopes and those occurring on natural slopes. Of course, some control works should be carried out on both types and in general, artificial slopes receive more intense treatment than natural slopes. Methods of landslide control are summarized as below: Stability of natural slope depends upon: Water pressure condition in the slope Stress history of the material Time factor

Preventive measures are: 1. River structural works: By using check dams, revetment, groin, dikes, etc.

2. Benching and diversion 3. Re-vegetation, grass seeding, afforestation, etc.

Landslide Mitigation and Guidance Measures:

Grading: Reducing the gradient of the slope by flattering or multiple benching to overcome the influence of gravity. Blasting: Blasting and partial or complete removal of unstable slope materials. Drainage: Providing suitable drainage, both surface and underground, horizontal drains and intersection ditches (open trenches). Vegetation Turfing: Along with jute or wire-meshing to provide good ground hold and promote growth of grass especially for slope stability. Asphalt Mulching: Bituminous emulsion covering to prevent erosion of slope materials, conserve moisture content and raise soil temperature promoting plant growth. Stabilization: Of loose materials by electro-osmosis. Wire Meshing: As close to steep rock as possible to contain falling rock. Use of rock bolts: To anchor loose rocks safely to underlying sound stationary bed rock. Use of piles to prevent downhill movement of slope materials. Removing weight from the head (hillside materials) and constructing crib wall, Caisson Buttresses, Bulkheads, debris barriers and retaining walls, a very effective measure. Strengthening and stabilizing existing structures and construction of anti-side structures with combined anti-seismic building techniques. Relocation of habitation, road etc. when the above methods are not suited or effective.

Preventive measures for artificial slopes

Avoidance: Relocation, bridging, tunneling, etc. Sub-surface drainage: Drainage tunnels, slope seepage ditches,

drainage wells of linear plates, drainage wells of ferro-concrete, etc. Surface drainage: Drainage channels or ditches, prevention of leakages, etc. Supporters: Retaining wall, anchor retaining wall, crib works, gabions, piling works, etc. River structural work: Check dams, revetment, spur dikes, etc. Other methods: Vegetation, soil hardening, etc.

Mechanism of Landslide
The plane from where moving mass separates to rest mass is called failure plane. The shape and position of failure plane/surface is governed by # # Pore water surface and Variations of shearing strength within the earth masses.

Generally the surface of failure is circular. The shearing stress and the shearing strength are assumed to be uniformly distributed along the slip surface. Forces acting on the sliding surfaces are: Driving Force: The force resulted from the weight of the overlying material i.e. rock, soil, vegetation and man-made structures that cause failure is called driving force. Resisting Force: It is caused by the shearing strength of the material acting on the slip surface. When driving force>resisting force, slide occurs. In rocks and soils as in other materials, a failure flows the pattern or path of least resistance. In a more or less homogeneous cohesive soil like clays, a slope would fail primarily by shear and the shear surface would be approximately circular. Thus rotational slides are produced. The rotational slides take by place first by little jerks and later gradually destroying the bond along the slip surface until the separating mass slumps down. Hence the term slump is used sometimes for

this kind of slide. If the shearing strength of the earth materials is less in horizontal direction than in the vertical direction, the circular arc may be flattened out. Conversely, cases of steeping of the circular arc may also be observed. If the soil or rock deposit is stratified, the upper strata may slide down with respect to the lower strata along the boundary, which in this case become the slip surface. Such movement of mass through slip surface is called transitional slide. A common cause of transitional slides is slab slides in which the slip surface is roughly parallel to the ground surface.

Rotational slides occur on steeper slopes and are of relatively limited length but translational slides occur on gentle slopes and are usually long. The removal of the lateral support, particularly the removal of the toe of the slope for emplacement of a building or a highway, is one of the very common causes of a slide. If the material is homogeneous, rotational slide may cause whereas the translational slide may occur if the material has tendency to slide along a plane.

Rotational slide usually develops from tension scars in the upper part of a slope. The tension cracks at the head of a rotational slide are generally concentric and parallel to the main scar.

Common types of landslides (or Slope Movement)

1. Falls

Falls are abrupt movements of masses of geologic materials that become detached from steep slopes or cliffs (i.e. rock fall). Movement occurs by free fall, bouncing and rolling. Depending on the type of earth materials involved, the result is a rock fall, soil fall, debris fall, earth fall, and boulder fall and so on. All types of falls are promoted by undercutting, differential weathering, excavation or stream erosion. 2. Topples

A topple is a block of rock that tilts or rotates forward on a pivot or hinge point and then separates from the main mass, falling to the slope below, and subsequently bouncing or rolling down the slope.

3. Slides

Although many types of mass movement are included in the general term landslide, the more restrictive use of the term refers to movements of soil or rock along a distinct surface of rupture which separates the slide material from more stable underlying material. The two major types of landslide are rotational slide and translational slide. a. Rotational Slide: A rotational slide is one in which the surface of rupture is curved concavely upward (spoon shaped) and the slide movement is more or less rotational about the axis that is parallel to the contour of the slope. A slump is an example of a small rotational slide. b. Translational Slide: In a translational slide, the mass moves out, or down and outwards along a relatively plane surface and has little rotational movement or backward tilting. The mass commonly slides out on top of the original ground surface. Such a slide may progress even greater distances if conditions are right. Slide material may range from loose unconsolidated rocks to extensive slabs of rock.

4. Lateral Spreads

Lateral spreads are a result of the nearly horizontal movement of geologic materials and are distinctive because they usually occur on very gentle slopes. The failure is caused by liquefaction, the process whereby saturated, loose, cohesionless sediments (usually sands and silts) are transformed from a solid into a liquefied state; or by plastic flow of subjacent material. Failure is usually triggered by a rapid ground motion such as that experienced during an earthquake, or by slow chemical changes in the pore water and mineral constituents.

5. Flows

Description of various forms of flows Creep: Creep is the imperceptibly slow, steady downwards movement of slopforming rock or soil. Creep is indicated by curved tree trunks, bent fences or retaining walls, tilted poles or fences, and small soil ripples. Debris Flow: A debris flow is form of rapid mass movement in which loose soils, rocks and organic matter combine with entrained air and water to form slurry that then flow downslope. Debris flow areas are usually associated with steep

gullies. Individual debris flow areas can usually be identified by the presence of debris fans at the terminal of the drainage basins. Debris Avalanche: A debris avalanche is a variety of very rapid to extremely rapid debris flow.

Creep Earth Flow: Earth flows have a characteristic hourglass share. A howl or depression forms at the head where the unstable material collects and flows out. The central area is narrow and usually becomes wider as it reaches the valley floor. Flows generally occur in fine-grained materials or clay-bearing rocks on moderate slopes and with saturated conditions. However, dry flows of granular material are also possible. Mud Flow: A mud flow is an earth flow that consists of material that is wet enough to flow rapidly and that contains at least 50 percent sand-, silt- and claysized materials. Lahar: A lahar is a mud flow or debris flow that originates on the slope of a volcano. Lahars are usually triggered by such things as heavy rainfall eroding volcanic deposits; sudden melting of snow and ice due to heat from volcanic vents; or by the breakout of water from glaciers, crater lakes, or lakes dammed by volcanic eruptions.