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The landslide story

Article  in  Nature Geoscience · May 2013

DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1806

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 commentary

The landslide story

Runqiu Huang and Xuanmei Fan
The catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake induced an unprecedented number of geohazards. The risk of
heightened landslide frequency after a quake, with potential secondary effects such as river damming
and subsequent floods, needs more focused attention.

O
n 12 May 2008, a devastating
earthquake with a moment magnitude
of 7.9 hit China’s Sichuan province.
The quake, originating in the Longmen Shan
fault zone at the eastern margin of Tibetan
Plateau, was the country’s largest seismic
event in more than 50 years. As well as the
immediate devastation through shaking,
the earthquake triggered more than 60,000
destructive landslides (Fig. 1) over an area
of 35,000 km2 (ref. 1); the landslides caused
about one-third of the total number of
fatalities. The combination of strong and
long-lasting ground shaking, steep, rugged
topography and a fragile and densely jointed
lithology probably controlled the occurrence
of landslides during the earthquake2–4, but
other factors may have also played a role.

A substantial rise in debris flows was also
apparent following the earthquake. We argue
that the risk of hazardous landslides and
their secondary effects could remain above
pre-quake levels for another one and a half
decades, and warrant further investigation.
Earthquake magnitude and distance from
the epicentre or ruptured fault are commonly
assumed to determine the spatial clustering
of landslides during an earthquake. However,
in the case of the Wenchuan earthquake,
two additional factors — fault type and slip
rate during the earthquake — probably also
played a role. The 240-km-long Yingxiu-
Beichuan fault of the Longmen Shan fault
zone, on which the earthquake nucleated,
is characterized by two distinct faulting
mechanisms, southwest and northeast of
Beichuan town, respectively. In the southwest,
the fault is prevalently reverse faulting (that is,
characterized by both vertical and horizontal
movement), with a fault plane at an angle of
about 43°. Contrarily, northeast of the town
the fault plane is almost vertical and the two
sides of the fault move past each other almost
exclusively horizontally, in a so-called strike-
slip motion5 (Fig. 2). As a result, the landslides
accompanying the 2008 earthquake were
clustered in a much wider corridor along the
southwestern part of the fault, where crustal
movement is both vertical and horizontal
and the ground motion is generally stronger 6.
Field measurements of vertical and horizontal
Figure 1 | The Daguangbao landslide. This was the largest landslide that occurred at the time of the 2008
Wenchuan earthquake, with a volume of 1.167 billion m3.
displacements of the crust along the Yingxiu-
Beichuan fault during the Wenchuan
earthquake confirm this assessment7.
Furthermore, large-scale landslides —
each displacing surface material from an area
of more than 50,000 m2 — were concentrated
where fault slip rates were highest5,7, near
the intersections and junctures of individual
segments of the fault (Fig. 2). These junctions
between fault segments were thought to
be locked5, with the potential to fail only
when sufficient stress has accumulated by a
cascade of rupturing in adjoining individual
segments. Once they do break, these
long-locked junctions are then thought to
release large amounts of seismic energy. The
observation that landslides are prevalent
at these junctions supports the proposed
high energy release, and hence the theory of
locked junctions.
The post-earthquake debris flow
hazard has become a significant concern.
A tremendous amount of loose material
from landslides that occurred during the
© RUNQIU HUANG
earthquake is suspended on the hillslopes,
ready to be eroded and transported by rain.
The threshold in hourly rainfall intensity
for triggering debris flows was found to
be around 60% lower after the earthquake
than before, according to the record
in Beichuan8. The Land and Resources
Department of Sichuan Province recorded
2,333 occurrences of debris flow following
the 2008 quake until 2012, not counting
small ones in remote regions. This number
is significantly higher than the number of
landslides in a comparable time frame before
the earthquake: there were 758 incidences of
debris flow recorded between 2003 and 2007.
How long it will take for the debris flow
frequency to return to pre-earthquake
levels depends on a large number of factors,
including rainfall intensity, natural re-
vegetation and self-stabilization processes
on slopes, and the evolution of the regional
topography in response to tectonics, erosion
and valley incision. Despite this complexity,
a rough approximation of the time required

NATURE GEOSCIENCE | VOL 6 | MAY 2013 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience 325

© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

 commentary

103° 30' E 104° E 104° 30' E 105° E a spillway to reduce the flood hazard.
75°0'0''E 90°0'0''E 105°0'0''E N However, due to the unexpectedly strong

45° N
Tian
Shan erosion of the spillway, the flood peak
Tarim
Basin Study area discharge reached 6,500 m3 s–1 at Beichuan
Tibet town. This energetic flood wave, in turn,

30° N
caused a cascade of breaches through
India four smaller landslide dams downstream,
Mw 7.9 and further flooding. Fortunately, people
15° N

800 km 12 May 2008

downstream had been evacuated while the
32° N

32° N
Tangjiashan lake was being drained and so the incident
landslide dam
did not cause fatalities. More than 800
landslides during the earthquake blocked
g
jian rivers, and thus produced numerous quake
Jian Beichuan
lakes that posed a serious threat to people
Mainyuan downstream11.
The longer-term effects of a similar
cascade of potential hazards were not fully
31° 30' N

31° 30' N
Qingping
taken into account in the post-seismic
Mianyang hazard assessment and in the selection of
g
ian

sites for the reconstruction of destroyed

F
YB
inj

buildings. For example, following intense

M

PF

Epicentre
rainstorms more than two years after
Active fault the earthquake, two large-scale debris
flows partially dammed the Minjiang and
Surface rupture Mianyuan rivers. When the dams burst, the
Reverse
31° N

Yingxiu newly reconstructed towns of Yingxiu and

31° N
Strike-slip
Qingping were catastrophically flooded12.
© RUNQIU HUANG

Elevation (m) Finally, the long-term impact of the

5,750
2008 Wenchuan earthquake on sediment
20 km flux in the affected watersheds was also
Chengdu 100 underestimated initially. We now realise
103° 30' E 104° E 104° 30' E 105° E that increases in sedimentation as a result of
the shaking will pose a significant problem
Figure 2 | Tectonic and geomorphic settings of the Wenchuan earthquake, China. The region of high for rivers and their downstream reaches.
landslide density, with more than 0.1% of the area affected by landslides within a moving window of 1 km2 Some river beds have already been elevated
(light green zone), is widest southwest of the town of Beichuan. In the northeast, in contrast, landslides by more than 10 m. These changes raise the
with a displaced surface area larger than 50,000 m2 (green dots) are closer to the fault. The Wenchuan probability of floods in the future, and could
earthquake occurred on the Yingxiu-Beichuan fault (YBF) and Pengguan fault (PF) (red). severely affect the generation of hydropower.
To be able to anticipate the potential
short- and long-term risks associated with
to return to pre-earthquake levels of another two decades. Their frequency is future seismic events, focused research efforts
landslides can be estimated by comparing likely to decline over time as a result of slope must be invested into quantifying the impact
the total amount of landslide material that self-stabilization, which may draw out the cascade following a large earthquake. ❐
was moved during the earthquake (and is effect even longer.
thus likely to be eventually mobilized by Geological reconnaissance and Runqiu Huang and Xuanmei Fan are at the State
rainfall) with the recorded annual debris hazard assessment immediately after the Key Laboratory of Geohazards Prevention and
flow volume since 2008. In line with records earthquake was organized efficiently and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University
of past events in the region, we assume that in full cooperation with the relevant local of Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Xuanmei
landslide material deposited on steep slopes and international geoscience institutes9. Fan is also at the Faculty of Geo-Information
with angles larger than 30°, and with a However, perhaps not enough attention was Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of
rainfall catchment area larger than 0.1 km2, paid to the cascade of geohazards following Twente, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands.
are preferentially susceptible to debris flows. the earthquake. For example, landslides e-mail: hrq@cdut.edu.cn; fanxuanmei@gmail.com
Using these assumptions, we estimate that triggered by the earthquake blocked rivers,
about 400 million m3 of loose sediments which in turn generated risks of floods. In
were deposited during the Wenchuan one representative case, the Tangjiashan References
1. Görüm, T. et al. Geomorphology 133, 152–167 (2011).
earthquakes at sites prone to slope failure. landslide blocked the Jianjiang river and 2. Yin, Y. et al. Landslides 6, 139–151 (2009).
These sediments are probably converted into impounded a huge lake with an estimated 3. Ouimet, W. B. T. Tectonophysics 491, 244–252 (2010).
debris flow at a rate of about 18 million m3 volume of 300 million m3. A potential 4. Dai, F. et al. J. Asian Earth Sci. 40, 883–895 (2011).
5. Shen, Z. et al. Nature Geosci. 2, 718–724 (2009).
per year, judging from the debris flow catastrophic dam breach posed a serious 6. Oglesby, D. D. et al. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 90, 616–628 (2000).
record after the 2008 quake. Based on these threat to more than 2.5 million people in 7. Xu, X. et al. Geology 37, 515–518 (2009).
estimates, we anticipate that — despite large the downstream towns and Mianyang city, 8. Tang, C. et al. Eng. Geol. 122, 22–23 (2011).
uncertainties — debris flows that directly the second largest city in Sichuan, located 9. Huang, R. J. Mt Sci. 8, 176–189 (2011).
10. Fan, X. et al. Nat. Hazard Earth Sys. 12, 3031–3044 (2012).
result from sediment movement during 85 km downstream10. In response to the 11. Fan, X. et al. Geomorphology 171, 58–68 (2012).
the 2008 earthquake may remain active for threat, the Chinese authorities constructed 12. Xu, Q. et al. Nat. Hazard Earth Sys. 12, 201–216 (2012).

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