SPG

Soils and Rocks

Review Form

Paper Title: ANALYSIS OF DISPLACEMENTS AND STABILITY OF A COLUVIUM IN TROPICAL

REGION

Paper No.: 20110503-SRI

Paper Category:  Article X Technical Note  Case History

Please answer the following questions:

Yes No See
comments
1 Is the paper original and contributes to the advance of the  X X
knowledge on the subject?
2 Is the title of the paper appropriate? X  
3 Does the abstract reflect the paper content?   
4 Are the methods and techniques employed appropriate?  X X
5 Is there excessive commercial content?   
6 Is the paper well organised?  X X
7 Are there key-words and are they appropriate?  X X
8 Is the use of the English language correct?  X X
9 Are SI units used?   
10 Is the size of the paper adequate to its submission   
category?
11 Are the conclusions clear and consistent with the paper X  
content?
12 Are all the papers cited in the text listed in the  X X
References?
13 Were all the papers listed in the References cited in the   
text?
14 Are all the figures and tables cited in the text? X  
15 Are the references complete?  X X
16 Is the quality of figures, photos etc acceptable?  X X
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17 Are all the symbols used properly defined and consistent X  

with the international practice?

Paper Evaluation:
 Accepted as submitted
 Accepted after minor corrections indicated below in this review form.
X Extensive revision is required and resubmission encouraged as:
 Article X Technical Note  Case History
 Rejected (Please present the reasons for rejection below).

If the paper is accepted, indicate the category:

 Article X Technical Note  Case History

Reviewer’s Comments (add pages if necessary)

Note: If necessary, attach a copy (preferably electronic) of the paper with the corrections required or suggested.

General comment:

Authors are kindly requested to include a section for describing the study area, comprising Table 1 and
Figs. 1 to 3, together with a brief description of the regional geology, which may be not familiar to non-
Brazilian readers (and would be needed for estimating the rock parameters in Table 6.
This section on the study area should also contain instrument details, sampling characteristics, and
testing procedures for strength tests (which are missing in the paper; i.e., soil parameters were obtained
from satured or unsaturated specimens?).

In Table 6, please comment on the peak friction angle being smaller for Rock than for Residual Soil and
Coluvium.

Specific comments:

Please pay attention to the need of detailed corrections in the use of English and a review of technical
expressions.
As examples, the paper contains several references to FS as Safety Factor (page 12) or Security
Factor (in the Abstract), and calls the Mohr-Coulomb as a Rupture Criterion, rather than a
Strength Criterion or a Failure Criterion. In Page 7, it is written collapse, rather than failure.

Figs. 7 8 and 9 must be redrawn to become clearer to readers.

Table 4 – explain or correct: minimum NA, critical NA, and maximum NA, when referring to
water levels.
the Authors are also kindly asked to explain the choice and inherent limitations for presenting a
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FEM analysis to evaluate the slope stability (based on “linear-elastic” soil parameters estimated
from SPT) rather than consideringing a more realistic non-linear behavior, from appropriate
triaxial lab data, which is readily available from common softwares, such as Plaxis, for this is
much simpler and may handle some of the simplified assumptions presented in the manuscript
more adequately.
Pages 6 and others: displacement rate rather than displacement speed.
Fig. 5 and 6 – dates must be in English format; also define distortions from inclinometers.
2.2.2 - Movement Classification
Please explain very slow to extremely slow movements
References: should include more recent papers (if possible, from past issues of Soils and Rocks);
and need a careful review to avoid Portuguese words. Examples:
Brugger, P. J., Ehrlich, M. e Lacerda, W. A. (1997),
Feijó, R. L., Paes, N. M. e d´Orsi, R. N. (2001), Chuvas e Movimentos de Massa no Município
do Rio de Janeiro, Anais da III Conferência Brasileira sobre Estabilidade de Encostas – III
COBRAE, Rio de Janeiro, p. 223-230. Turner, A.K. e Schuster, R.L. (1996), Landsdiles-
Investigation and Mitigation, Special Report 247, 1996, Transportation Research Board,
National Research Council, Nacional Academy Press, Washington D.C., 525-554.
Duncan, J. M., (1996), Soil Slope Stability Analisis, In: Landslides : Investigation and
Mitigation. Transportation Research Board Special report 247, Washington, D. C., Estados
Unidos da América, p. 337-371.
Davis, 2004 – not listed, but referred in Table 2
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Comments or suggestions for the editors only