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BULLETIN of the International Association of ENGINEERING GEOLOGY de

I'Association Internationale de GEOLOGIE DE L'INGENIEUR NO 47 PARIS 1993
A SUGGESTED METHOD FOR DESCRIBING THE A...

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 BULLETIN of the International Association of ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
de I'Association Internationale de GEOLOGIE DE L'INGENIEUR NO 47 PARIS 1993

A SUGGESTED METHOD FOR DESCRIBING THE ACTIVITY OF A LANDSLIDE

P R O P O S I T I O N P O U R U N E M E T H O I ) E DE D E S C R I P T I O N DE L ' A C T I V I T I ~ D ' U N G L I S S E M E N T
DE T E R R A I N

UNESCO W O R K I N G PARTY ON WORLD LANDSLIDE I N V E N T O R Y

SId m nl a ry

The activity of a landslide can be described by terms relating to the timing of the landslide, the State of Activity. to which parts of the landslide
:ire moving, the Distribution of Activity. and to how different m o v e m e n t s contribute to the overall m o v e m e n t , the Style of Activity.

Resumd

On peut decrirc I'activit6 d'un g l i s s e m e u t de terrain en ddcrivaut I'dtat tie I'activitd. la distribution tie I'actlvitd et le style de l'activit6. L'dtat
de l ' a c t i v i t e d6crit 1'6',olution temporelle des mouvcments. I.a distribution de l'activit,5 dtScrit les relations entre les parties du g[issement de
terrain qui soul cn m o u v e m e n t . Le style dc l'activit6 dccrit c o m m e n t le~, m o u v e m e n t s ditfdrents cnntribuent au g l i s s e m e n t entier.

Introduction Terms Relating to Activity

The International Geotechnical Societies" UNESCO
Working Party on World Landslide Inventory
(WP/WLI) has been formed from the IAEG's Commis-
sion on Landslides and Other Mass Movements, the
ISSMFE's Technical Committee on Landslides and
nominees of National Groups of the International
Society for Rock Mechanics. As a contribution to the
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction
(1990-200(}). the Working Party is assisting the estab-
lishment of a World Landslide Inventory by suggesting
standard terminology for describing landslides. The
Working Party has suggested a method for reporting a
landslide (WP/WLI, 1990) and for preparing a landslide
summary (WP/WLI, I991). The Party's working defini-
tion of a landslide is "The movement of a mass of rock,
earth, or debris down a slope" (Cruden, 1991).
Under activity, broad aspects of landslides are de-
scribed, those aspects that should foctts the initial re-
connaissance of movements before more detailed
examination of the materials displaced. The terms
Varnes (1978) considered relating to age, and state of
activity with some of the terms from sequence or re-
petition of movement have been regrouped under three
headings; State of Activity, which describes what is
known about the timing of movements, Distribution of
Activity, which describes broadly where the landslide
is moving and Style of Activity, which indicates how
different movements within the landslide contribute to
its overall movement (Table 1).
State of Activity

The Working Party has set up Working Groups to ex- Active landslides (Fig. 1) are those that are currently
tend the scope of the Landslide Report to the rates of moving. Landslides which have moved within the last
movement of landslides, their causes, their geology, the annual cycle of seasons but which are not moving at
damage they cause, their activity and the distribution
of movement within landslides. The suggestions here "Fable I : A glossary of the a c t i v i t y of landslides.
from the Working Group on Activity describe activity
under three headings; State of Activity, Distribution of Distribution
Style of activity
State of activity of a c t i v i t y
Activity, and Style of Activity, and will be used to
supplement the Landslide Report. The Working Party Active Retrogressing Complex
welcomes carefully documented proposals for additions Reactivated Advancing Composite
or amendments to this (and other) Suggested Methods. Suspended Widening Multiple
They should be addressed to the Chairman of the Work- Inactive : Dormant Confined Successive
: Abandoned Enlarging Single
ing Party (currently Dr. D.M. Cruden, Department of : Stabilized Diminishing
Civil Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, : Relict Moving
Alberta, Canada, T6G 2G7).
 54
r--~-
Fig. I : Sections through topples in different States of Activity : 1) Ac-
tive, erosion at the toe of the slope c a u s e s a block to l o p p l e ; 2) Sus-
pended, local c r a c k i n g in the crown of the t o p p l e ; 3) Reactivated,
a n o t h e r block t o p p l e s : 4) Dormant. the d i s p l a c e d mass begins to re-
gain its tree cover, scarps are modified by w e a t h e r i n g ; 5) Abandoned,
fluvial deposition at the toe of the slope, the scarp begins to regain
its tree c o v e r ; 6) Relict, uniform tree c o v e r over the slope.
present were described by Varnes (1978) as suspended
(Fig. 1.2). Inactive landslides are those which last
moved more than one annual cycle of seasons ago. This
state may be subdivided. If the causes of movement
apparently remain, then the landslides are dormant
(Fig. 1.4). Perhaps, however, the river which had been
eroding the toe of the moving slope has itself changed
course and the landslide is ABANDONED as in Fig. 1.5
(Hutchinson, Gostelow, 1976). If the toe of the slope
has been protected against erosion by bank armoring
or other artificial remedial measures have stopped the
movement the landslide can be described as stabilized.
Landslides often remain visible in the landscape for
thousands of years after they have initially moved.
Landslides which have clearly developed under differ-
ent geomorphological or climatic conditions have been
called relict (Fig. 1.6). Road construction in Southern
England for instance reactivated relict debris flows
i DORMANt
! ; SUSP[
Nb[~---~
S~SPENDE9
9 }
l ' 4
2
I I i i
3
I I i
4
~ 9
Time in y e a r s
Fig. 2 : Displacement of a landslide in different states of activity.
which occurred over ten thousand years earlier under
periglacial conditions (Skempton and Weeks, 1976).
A landslide which is again active after being inactive
may be called reactivated. Slides that are reactivated
generally move on pre-existing shears whose strength
parameters approach residual (Skempton, 1970) or ulti-
mate (Krahn. Morgenstern, 1979) values. They can be
distinguished from first-time slides on whose rupture
surfaces resistance to shear may initially approach peak
values.
The definitions of the various states of activity can also
be shown on a graph of the displacement of the dis-
placing material against time (Fig. 2). This graph might
be created by plotting differences in the position of a
target on the displacing material against time. Such
graphs are particularly suited to portraying the be-
haviour of slow-moving landslides, as they pre-suppose
the target does not displace significantly over the time
period during measurement. The velocity of the target
can be estimated by the average rate of displacement
of the target over the time period between measure-
ments.
Distribution of Activity (Fig. 3)
Varnes (1978) defined a number of terms that can be
used to describe the activity distribution in a landslide.
Movement may be limited to the displacing material
or the rupture surface may be extending, continually
adding to the volume of displacing material. If the rup-
ture surface is extending in the direction opposite to
the movement of the displaced material, the landslide
is said to be retrogressing (Fig. 3.2). If the rupture sur-
face is extending in the direction of movement the land-
slide is advancing (Fig. 3.1). If the rupture surface is
extending at one or both lateral margins, the landslide
is widening. Hutchinson (1988, p. 9) has drawn atten-
tion to confined (Fig. 3.5) movements, that have a scarp
but no rupture surface visible in the foot of the dis-
placed mass. He suggested that displacements in the
head of the displaced mass are taken up by compression
and slight bulging in the foot of the mass. tf the rupture
surface of the landslide is enlarging in two or more
 55
I 2
melres
Fig. 3 : Sections through slides showing different distributions of ac-
tivity: I) Advancing: 2) Retrogressing; 31 Enlarging: 41 Diminish-
ing: 5) Confined.
In diagrams 1-4, Section 2 shows the slope after mo,,ement on the
rupture surface indicated by the shear arrow in the section. Displaced
material is dotted. Diagrams 1-3 show muhiple slides.
directions, Varnes (1978, p. 23) suggested the term pro-
gressive for the landslide while noting this term had
also been used for both a d v a n c i n g and retrogressing
landslides. This term is also current for describing the
process, progressive failure, by which the rupture sur-
face in some slides extends. The possibility of confu-
sion seems sufficient now to a b a n d o n "progressive" in
favour of describing the landslide as enlarging
(Fig. 3.3). To complete the possibilities, terms are
needed for landslides in which the volume of displacing
material can be seen to be reducing with time and for
those landslides where no trend is obvious.
Movements such as rotational slides and topples may
stop naturally after substantial displacements because
the movements themselves reduce the gravitational
forces on the displaced masses. Alternatively, rock
masses may he dilated by m o v e m e n t s that rapidly in-
crease the volumes of cracks in the masses and cause
decreases in fluid pore pressures within these cracks.
However to conclude that the displacing mass in sta-
bilizing because its volume is decreasing may be pre-
mature. Hutchinson (1973) has pointed out that the
activity of rotational slides caused by erosion at the
toe of slopes in cohesive soils is often cyclic. The term,
1
%v....
I I
Section Plan
3 cr.--" a
)
'6m I D
Fig. 4 : Sections through landslides showing different styles of activ-
ity: I) Complex, gneiss (AI and migmatites (I) toppled with valley
incision, alluvial deposits filled in the valley bottom. After weathering
weakened the toppled material, some of the displaced mass slid
(Giraud et al., 1990); 2) Composite, limestones have slid on the un-
derlying shales causing toppling below the toe of the slide rupture
surface (Harrison and Falcon. 1934): 3) Successive. the later slide,
AB. is of the same type as slide, DC, but does not share displaced
material or a rupture surface with it: 4) Single.
diminishing (Fig. 3.4), for a landslide whose displacing
material is decreasing in volume seems free of un-
desired implications. Landslides whose displaced mate-
rials continue to move but whose rupture surfaces show
no visible changes can be simply described as moving.
Style of Activity (Fig. 4)
The way in which different m o v e m e n t s contribute to
the landslide, the style of the landslide activity can he
described by terms from Varnes (1978, p. 23).
There, complex landslides are defined as exhibiting at
least two types of m o v e m e n t s , ttere, the term in limited
to m o v e m e n t s in which the types are in sequence
(Fig. 4.1). For instance, Giraud et al. (1990) described
 56
topples in which some of the displaced mas~ sub-
sequently slid. a complex rock-topple rock-slide. Not
all the toppled mass slid but no signiHcant part of thc
displaced mass slid without first toppling. Notice that
some of the displaced mass may be still toppling while
other parts are sliding.
The term compos#e, can be used to distinguish land-
slides, previously described as complex, in which two
different types of movements occur in difl'erent areas
of the displaced mass. The roof and wall collapse struc-
tures described by Harrison and Falcon (1934, 1936),
called slide-toe topples by G o o d m a n and Bray, (1976,~
are composite rock-slide rock-topples (Fig. 4.2). Com-
posite was introduced by Prior, Stephens and Archer
(1968) to describe mudflows in which "'slipping and
sliding ... occur in intimate association with flowing"
(p. 65) "the material .... behaves as a liquid and flows
rapidly between confining marginal shears" (p. 76).
These movements were composite earth-slides earth-
flows.
Multiple movements (Hutchinson, 1968) are landslides
with repeated development of the same type of move-
ment (Fig. 3.1, 3.2, 3.3). In a retrogressive, multiple,
rotational slide, two or more blocks have each moved
on curved rupture surfaces tangential to a c o m m o n
generally deep rupture surface.
A svccessive movement is identical in type to an earlier
movement but in contrast to a multiple movement does
not share displaced material or a rupture surface with
it (Fig. 4.3). According to Skempton and Hutchinson
(1969) "'Successive rotational slips consist of an as-
sembly of individual shallow rotational slips". Hutchin-
son (1967) commented that "Irregular successive slips
which form a mosaic rather than a stepped pattern in
plan are also lbund."
Single landslides consist of a single movement of dis-
placed material often as an unbroken block (Fig. 4.4).
They are in contrast to the previous styles of movement
which require disruption of the displaced mass or in-
dependent movements of portions of the mass.
Discussion
There is some redundancy in using the descriptions of
activity with the Working Party's Suggested Method for
Describing the Rate of M o v e m e n t o f Landslides
(WPIWLI, 1993). Clearly, if the landslide has a meas-
urable rate of movement, it is either active or reacti-
vated. The State of Activity might then be used to refer
to conditions before the current m o v e m e n t s of the land-
slide. If, for instance, remedial measures had been un-
dertaken on a landslide which is now moving with a
moderate velocity the landslide might be described as
a previously stabilized, moving, moderate velocity
landslide. Landslides with no discernible history of pre-
vious movements would be described by the term ac-
tive.
Standard criteria might be developed to assist in dis-
tinguishing suspended landslides from dormant and re-
lict landslides. These would describe how vegetation
recolonizes the surfaces exposed by sh}pc movements
and also the dissection of the new topography bv
drainage. The rate of these changes depends both on
the local climate and the local vegetation. When the
main scarp of a landslide has new vegetation rooting
in it, the landslide is usually dormant: when drainage
extends across a landslide without obvious discontinui-
ties the landslide is often relict. However, these gener-
alizations should be confirmed by detailed study of
sample slope movements under local conditions..
Acknowledgements
The members of the Working Group on Activity are
D.M. Cruden, J. Farkas, J.N. Hutchinson, S. Novosad,
W.H. Ting, D.J. Varnes and G.X. Wang. We are grateful
to U N E S C O Earth Sciences Division for funding the
travel of some Working Party members to meetings to
discuss the Suggested Method.
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