Geophys. J. Int. (2022) 229, 299–310 https://doi.org/10.

1093/gji/ggab473
Advance Access publication 2021 November 23
GJI Seismology

Monitoring the changing seismic site response of a fast-moving

rockslide (Brienz/Brinzauls, Switzerland)

Mauro Häusler ,1 Valentin Gischig,2 Reto Thöny,3 Franziska Glueer1 and Fäh Donat1
1 SwissSeismological Service, ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland. E-mail: mauro.haeusler@sed.ethz.ch
2 CSD Ingenieure AG, Berne 3097, Switzerland
3 BTG Büro für Technische Geologie AG, Sargans 7320, Switzerland

Accepted 2021 November 17. Received 2021 November 17; in original form 2021 June 21

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SUMMARY
Seismic measurements on unstable rock slopes are a complementary tool to surface displace-
ment surveys to characterize and monitor landslides. A key parameter is seismic amplification,
which tends to scale with the degree of rock mass degradation. Amplification also provides a
direct measure of how the wavefield is intensified during seismic loading, eventually leading to
coseismic failure. Here we present the dynamic response of the fast-moving Brienz/Brinzauls
rock slope instability in Switzerland (10 × 106 to 25 × 106 m3 ), which threatens settlements
and infrastructure in the area. The rockslide shows strong seismic amplification at two resonant
frequencies with factors of up to 11 and wavefield polarization influenced by the local fracture
network orientation. We monitored the dynamic response over a period of 30 months using
ambient vibrations and regional earthquake recordings. We observed a change in wavefield
polarization of up to 50◦ , coinciding with a rotation of the relative surface displacement vector
field measured by geodetic systems, highlighting the linkage between wavefield polarization
and stress field (i.e. rock mass kinematics). For the analysis of secondary, relative surface
displacements, we propose a singular value filtering of the displacement field to remove the
principal component of landslide motion. In addition, we found increased seismic amplifica-
tion values after periods of strong precipitation, providing empirical field evidence that the
local precipitation history is a key parameter for assessing the hazard of earthquake-induced
slope failure.
Key words: Geodetic instrumentation; Earthquake hazards; Seismic noise; Site effects;
Surface waves and free oscillations.

are not representative of the kinematics at larger depth. Since the

1 I N T RO D U C T I O N
Deep-seated gravitational slope deformations can produce signifi-
cant socio-economical costs due to progressive damage and result-
ing maintenance of engineered structures such as lifelines and build-
ings. Moreover, such instabilities are prone to secondary mass move-
ments and can eventually accelerate towards catastrophic failure.
With the advent of airborne and satellite based remote sensing,
slope instabilities can be rapidly detected and mapped with high
spatial and temporal resolution over large regional extents (e.g.
Jaboyedoff et al. 2012; Casagli et al. 2016; Bickel et al. 2018; Dini
et al. 2019). Nonetheless, to monitor a specific high-risk slope and to
investigate catastrophic failure scenarios, extensive on-site survey-
ing is indispensable. Such monitoring is usually based on measuring
surface displacements, either by optical systems or radar-based tech-
nology (Loew et al. 2017; Manconi et al. 2018; Glueer et al. 2019).
Although surface displacements might allow geologists to estimate
failure, the prediction can be biased if the surface displacements
acceleration of rockslides is often sensitive to hydrological forcing,
alternative approaches involve modeling of the acceleration based
on environmental parameters, such as precipitation and pore water
pressure (Fernández-Merodo et al. 2014; Vallet et al. 2016).
In the last decade, ambient vibrations have been increasingly
used to characterize and monitor natural landforms (e.g. Larose et
al. 2015; Bottelin et al. 2017; Burjánek et al. 2018; Kleinbrod et
al. 2019; Geimer et al. 2020; Häusler et al. 2021). Decreasing rock
stiffness prior to a collapse (e.g. due to failing rock bridges) was ob-
served to result in a decrease in resonant frequency and shear wave
velocity and can serve as a precursor for slope instabilities (Lévy et
al. 2010; Fiolleau et al. 2020; Colombero et al. 2021; Le Breton et
al. 2021). Bontemps et al. (2020) observed a drop in seismic shear
wave velocity in a soil landslide during phases of acceleration and
as a result of earthquake loading. Seismic loading itself can act as
trigger for slope failure, resulting in the most fatal coseismic hazard
besides tsunamis (e.g. Budimir et al. 2014). Numerical models and


C The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access

article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which
permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
299
300 M. Häusler et al.
observations of coseismic landslides suggest a strong impact of en-
vironmental influences and local geomechanical conditions on the
seismic stability (Gischig et al. 2015; Massey et al. 2018; Nowicki
Jessee et al. 2018; Bradley et al. 2019). However, in situ monitoring
of seismic site responses of rock instabilities remains rare.
In this study, we explore the potential of ambient vibration and
earthquake monitoring on the increasingly active slope instabil-
ity at Brinzauls (Switzerland). We apply array-based seismolog-
ical mapping to analyse amplification and normal modes, which
helps characterize the landslide, for example, by compartmentaliz-
ing the unstable rock mass into structural units based on vibrational
properties. We track the dynamic response over 30 months with a
seismometer installed directly on the slope instability and report
on significant changes in wavefield polarization, coinciding with
changes in landslide kinematics and demonstrate that precipitation
history directly influences the seismic site response of the landslide.
2 LANDSLIDE GENESIS AND ACTIVITY
The active slope instability of Brinzauls (German: Brienz) covers an
area of about 3 km2 on the southern slope of Piz Linard in Canton of
Grisons, Switzerland, and is part of a deep-seated gravitational slope
deformation, which extends over an area of about 10 km2 (Fig. 1a;
Krähenbühl & Nänni 2017). The active part of the landslide can be
divided into two interlinked domains.
The lower domain consists of a cultivated terrace around the
village Brinzauls, which is limited by the Albula river to the south
and sharp lateral boundaries towards the east and west. A drilling
campaign in 2018/2019, covering the entire lower domain, revealed
the presence of a distinct, relatively flat (10–15◦ ) basal sliding plane,
reaching maximum depth of 153 m at the village of Brinzauls
(borehole KB1) and daylighting at the recent riverbed of the Albula
(BTG 2021). The sliding mass has a volume of 100 × 106 to 200
× 106 m3 and consists mainly of Flysch (turbidity flow deposit,
slate with sandy interbeds), which run over the fluvial deposits of
the Albula over a distance of roughly 300 m. Sliding has begun
in prehistoric times presumably due to glacial retreat after the last
glacial maximum. Sliding velocity around the village increased
from 0.2 m yr–1 prior to November 2011 to 1.2 m yr–1 in November
2020 (Fig. 1b), resulting in severe damages on farmland, buildings
and infrastructure.
The second, upper domain comprises the rock formations above
the village, a ridge named Caltgeras and a less steep area called
Plateau, consisting of the Allgäu formation, overlaid by Raibler
layers (Rauwacke and dolomites) and Arlberg dolomite. Litholog-
ical boundaries are of tectonic origin and dip moderately into the
slope. A drilling campaign in 2020 consisted of cored and instru-
mented boreholes, and revealed different kinematic mechanisms
along Caltgeras: sliding at the toe of the ridge (at 125 m in KB8)
and in the Arlberg dolomite on top (at 57 m in KB10) and top-
pling in the Allgäu formation in the midslope regions (at 183 m in
KB11). The fracture network in the Arlberg dolomite consists of
steeply inclined SW–NE and NW–SE striking fractures and sub-
dominant N–S trending fracture zones. Displacement velocities at
the Plateau were 0.6 m yr–1 in October 2011 and reached 3.8 m yr–1
in November 2020 (Fig. 1b) with a sliding dip angle >35◦ (see also
Gojcic et al. 2021). The volume of this second domain is estimated
to be on the order of 10 × 106 to 25 × 106 m3 . The area is heavily
fractured, resulting in frequent rock fall events towards the village
of Brienz/Brinzauls. Fig. 1(c) provides an overview of the principal
morphological structures. A previous collateral landslide of about
∼2.5 × 106 m3 , called ‘Igl Rutsch’, was released in 1878, reaching
average velocities of about 1 m d–1 with increased activity during
spring and fall of up to 5 m d–1 (Heim 1932). Fig. 1(d) summarizes
the geological model of the slope instability. Displacement rates
of both subsystems show simultaneous phases of acceleration, and
observations of short-term accelerations and local rock fall activity
indicate a strong correlation with precipitation rates.
3 METHODS
3.1 Ambient vibration array data acquisition and
processing
To characterize the dynamic response on the Plateau, we deployed a
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temporary array of 16 seismometers on 18 June 2018 and recorded
105 min of ambient vibrations (Fig. 2). We used LE-3D/5 s seis-
mometers from Lennartz and Nanometrics Taurus and Centaur digi-
tizers with 200 Hz sampling frequency. All temporary stations were
mounted on metal tripods in shallow holes in the soil (∼30 cm), on
large boulders or, where applicable, on solid bedrock. Seismometers
were oriented to magnetic north by compass with accuracy better
than 5◦ (magnetic declination during survey: +1◦ ). Every digitizer
was equipped with a GPS antenna for accurate timing informa-
tion. During the array, the permanent seismic station BRIZ2 was
recording simultaneously (Section 3.2).
Empirical and numerical studies on unstable rock slopes demon-
strated that such sites exhibit large seismic wavefield amplifications
(>4; Bozzano et al. 2008; Del Gaudio & Wasowski 2011; Gischig
et al. 2015). Local relative wavefield amplification can be estimated
using the site-to-reference spectral ratio technique using ambient
vibration data (SRSR; Borcherdt 1970; Perron et al. 2018). Hor-
izontal amplitude spectra at the test stations are divided by the
spectra of a reference station placed on presumably stable ground
not exhibiting amplification. In our study, we used the geometrical
mean of both horizontal components and station 317 as a reference
station, which is located on the alpine meadow Propissi Sot outside
the rock instability. Spectra with high resolution and low spectral
leakage are computed using the multitaper method with four ta-
pers, a time-bandwidth product of 2.5 and 100 s time windows
(Thomson 1982; Prieto et al. 2009). The high frequency resolution
of the spectra provided by multitaper analysis allows for detecting
near-monochromatic noise sources, which are most likely caused
by anthropogenic sources, such as machinery. If the distance be-
tween reference and test station is small, such noise signals are
successfully cancelled by normalizing to the reference spectrum.
Relative amplification curves were automatically clustered using
the heuristic k-means++ clustering algorithm, which is a more effi-
cient version of the classic k-means clustering algorithm and allows
us to group stations with similar seismological fingerprints and pre-
sumably similar site conditions (Lloyd 1982; Arthur & Vassilvitskii
2007). The k-means++ algorithm is applied with the numbers of
clusters (k) ranging from one to five (maximum number of clusters
expected). We used the squared Euclidean distance and 500 repli-
cates, that is the clustering is repeated 500 times to avoid converging
to a local minimum. For every k, the silhouette clustering criterion
(Rousseeuw 1987) is computed and the run with the highest silhou-
ette value determines the optimal amount of clusters. In our study,
we applied the clustering algorithm in two frequency bands: 1.1–
2.3 Hz and 2.3–4.0 Hz. These frequency bands were determined
based on a first inspection of the power spectra of all components
registered, which revealed a peak of elevated power in each of these
 Site response of the Brinzauls slope instability 301

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Figure 1. Overview of the deep-seated landslide at Brinzauls, with focus on the Plateau subdomain. (a) Photograph of the Brinzauls rock instability (view
towards northwest) with drilling locations, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) monitoring positions and seismometer location. (b) Displacement
time-series at selected locations marked on panel (a). (c) Elevation model and simplified geomorphological map of the Plateau (see Fig. S1 for details). (d)
Geological profile along the ridge Caltgeras. Photograph panel (a) by courtesy of SRF Einstein. Elevation model in panel (c) provided by courtesy of AWN.
Coordinate frame LV03 (WGS84: 46.679, 9.593). More photographs of the site and the monitoring installation are provided in Fig. S2.
302 M. Häusler et al.

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Figure 2. Overview map of the experimental setup at Caltgeras and the Plateau, including temporary seismometers (red squares), one permanent seismic
station (red triangle) and GNSS markers (yellow and green circles). Note that marker 1010 is excluded from the singular value decomposition (SVD), as it is
located on the currently inactive part of the landslide. Geodata source AWN and Federal Office of Topography.

bands. We chose 1.1 Hz instead of 1.0 Hz for the lowest frequency
to avoid a strong monochromatic signal at 1 Hz recorded at one sen-
sor, which is attributed to noise. The same bands can be obtained
by analysing the amplification function based on empirical spectral
modelling (Section 3.3). The k-means++ algorithm can be found
as built-in function of MATLAB.
High amplification in distinct frequency bands might indicate
normal-mode behaviour, that is a standing wave phenomenon
caused by waves trapped between fractures. To investigate this phe-
nomenon, we applied the frequency domain decomposition (FDD)
technique for normal-mode analysis, which is a standard technique
in structural engineering but has found broad application on geolog-
ical features such as sedimentary valleys and rock slope instabilities
(Brincker et al. 2001; Michel et al. 2010; Bottelin et al. 2013; Poggi
et al. 2015; Häusler et al. 2021; Mercerat et al. 2021). The cross-
power spectral density matrix of all input traces of ambient vibration
data is computed and decomposed in its singular values and singular
vectors. The singular values represent the auto spectral densities of
each modal coordinate, which peak at the resonant frequencies of
the system. The singular vector at the resonant frequency directly
represents the 3-D mode shape vector at the recording station. The
advantage of FDD lies in the combination of all input traces in a
single plot and in the direct interpretation of the mode shapes by con-
serving the phase information between different recording stations.
This property can, for example, be used to map the fracture net-
work of rock instabilities by delineating the zero-crossings between

different vibration phases of a mode shape (Häusler et al. 2019). In
our analysis, we included the reference station 317 and all stations
on the instability except station 301, because of its corrupted vertical
component. To better distinguish true resonant frequencies of the
system from harmonic oscillations arising from noise sources such
as machineries, we additionally evaluated the mean of all power
spectra computed with the multitaper method. Near-harmonic sig-
nals appear as sharp spikes, supporting the detection of these noise
sources on the singular value plot of the FDD.
3.2 Ambient vibration monitoring and processing
We measured ambient vibrations at the seismic station BRIZ2 using
a Lennartz LE-3Dlite/1s seismometer, recording at 200 Hz using
a solar-powered Nanometrics Taurus digitizer and mobile phone
network for data transmission. The sensor was installed on 30 May
2018 and was inspected on 13 September 2019 and 19 November
2020 while no deviation from magnetic north was observed in the
precision of a hand-held magnetic compass. The sensor tilted by
less than 2◦ towards south across the monitoring period.
Data are processed every full hour using data of the past 60
min. Data handling and preparatory signal processing is performed
using the seismological processing package ObsPy (Beyreuther et
al. 2010). For every data package of 60 min, power spectra were
computed using the multitaper technique (described in the previous
section) and wavefield polarization analysis was performed using
three frequency bands (A: 1–2.4 Hz, B: 2.4–4 Hz, and C: 4–10 Hz.).
Bands A and B correspond to the bandwidths used for clustering
relative amplification curves (see Section 3.1), that is each band
includes one amplification peak. We added the third band (C) up
to 10 Hz to preserve some higher frequencies and complete the
1–10 Hz bandwidth. For polarization analysis, we used the time-
frequency polarization technique by Burjánek et al. (2010), which
is a generalized particle motion polarization analysis adapted from
Vidale (1986). The method computes the coherency matrix between
all three components using the continuous wavelet transform. The
eigenvalue decomposition provides the directionality of the seismic
signal by evaluating the eigenvector of the largest eigenvalue. The
resulting parameters are the orientation of the wavefield in azimuthal
direction from north, the inclination of the wavefield with respect to
horizontal and the ellipticity, describing the degree of polarization of
the wavefield. For display purpose, resulting azimuth values were
smoothed using a 72-hr median filter and hourly measurements
values of all polarization parameters are illustrated in Figs S3–S5
in the supplementary information.
3.3 Absolute amplification by empirical spectral modelling
We retrieved information on the absolute linear seismic site am-
plification by applying the empirical spectral modelling method
introduced by Edwards et al. (2013). This approach compares the
expected spectra from a Brune ω2 source model (Brune 1970) based
on a localized hypocentre of an earthquake with those recorded in
the field by the Swiss national seismic network (SED 1983). After
each earthquake registered by the network, the model is inverted for
damping and the local site amplification relative to a Swiss generic
rock reference model. This reference model is based on 27 seismic
stations where shear wave velocity profiles are available (Poggi et
al. 2011). Due to the event-by-event approach, the resulting am-
plification becomes increasingly robust over time. The technique is
implemented in the routine monitoring of the Swiss Seismological
Site response of the Brinzauls slope instability 303
Service. The empirical spectral modeling amplification curve is rep-
resented by the geometric mean of the horizontal components of all
observations. An observation only contributes to the computation
if the signal-to-noise ratio of a recording exceeds three. Therefore,
for some events only one horizontal component (i.e. observation)
is available. Note that this method does not consider non-linear site
effects and is, thus likely to overestimate amplification during strong
ground shaking (Beresnev & Wen 1996).
In our study, 72 observations from 40 regional seismic events are
contributing to the site amplification function at station BRIZ2. We
provide an overview of the contributing events in Table S1 and Fig.
S6. The regional earthquakes reached local magnitudes between
1.6 and 4.3 and occurred at distances between 16 and 187 km. The
catalogue is dominated by the Elm sequences located at 43 km
distance, making up 13 out of 40 seismic events or 23 out of 72
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observations.
3.4 GNSS-based displacement measurements
The landslide area is monitored semi-annually by measuring fixed
field markers with a hand-held differential GNSS system (yellow
and green circles in Fig. 2). In addition, a permanent GNSS sensor
(station 101) is installed in the centre of the village (see Figs 1a and
S1). Both systems have an accuracy of about 2 cm.
To analyse relative secondary displacement vectors, we retrieved
and removed the principal component of the displacement field
by applying a singular value filter, a common technique in image
processing (Andrews & Patterson 1976). For every interval be-
tween two subsequent surveys, a matrix M is set up, containing
the displacement of the three Cartesian components in its columns
(x, y, z) and the number of GNSS survey locations n in the
rows:
⎡ ⎤
x1 y1 z 1
⎢ ⎥
M = ⎣ ... . . . ... ⎦ . (1)
xn yn z n
The singular value decomposition of Mi takes the form
3
M = USVT = u j s j vTj , (2)
j=1
where U and V are orthogonal matrices containing the left and right
singular vectors, that is U = [u1 , . . . , un ] and V = [v1 , v2 , v3 ]. Note
that U is a n × n matrix and V is always a 3 × 3 matrix. S is a n × 3
matrix containing the positive singular values in descending order
in the diagonal elements with off-diagonal elements being zero. T
denotes the transpose of a matrix.
The principal component is removed by withdrawing the first
singular value, that is by neglecting j = 1:
3
A = U S V =
T
u j s j vTj . (3)
j=2
The resulting matrix A describes the displacement vector field
without the principal component and, thus represents secondary
displacements only. Stations 1010 and the permanent GNSS station
101 were excluded from the analysis, as station 1010 is situated on
the inactive part north of the rear fracture and station 101 is located
in the village of Brinzauls and, thus in the lower domain of the
landslide, which experiences different kinematics than the upper
Caltgeras-Plateau domain.
304 M. Häusler et al.
3.5 Meteorological and environmental data
Precipitation data were taken from the weather station operated
by the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology
(www.meteoswiss.admin.ch) in Valbella (station code VAB, 8.9 km
distance to BRIZ2, 1568 m a.s.l., WGS84: 46.75503, 9.55443). We
used a normalized precipitation index to model the decaying con-
tribution of a given precipitation event to the water content in the
subsurface. The index describes the daily precipitation sums and
includes the daily precipitation sums of all previous days with a
weight exponentially decaying with time. We followed the formu-
lation given by Helmstetter & Garambois (2010) and normalized
the index by the time window length considered. The normalized
precipitation index PC at time t j is given by:
i ti −t j
P t j exp −
j=0 tc
Pc (ti ) = , (4)
i ti −t j
j=0 exp − tc
where P(t j ) is the daily precipitation sum at time t j and tc cor-
responds to the characteristic time, which was set to 14 d in our
study.
Snow height data were taken from an automated station op-
erated by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
(www.slf.ch) located at Piz Martegnas at an elevation of 2429 m
a.s.l. (station code PMA2, WGS84: 46.58008, 9.53739) and with a
distance of 11.8 km to BRIZ2. Discharge data of the Albula river
were recorded at Tiefencastel, which is located adjacent to the deep-
seated gravitational slope deformation of Brinzauls. The recording
station (code 2141) is operated by the Swiss Federal Office of the
Environment (www.bafu.admin.ch).
4 R E S U LT S
4.1 Seismological mapping
In the frequency band 1.1–2.3 Hz, the amplification pattern of the
seismic stations clusters into two groups (Figs 3a and c). The sta-
tions of the first group show a mean amplification factor of about
five peaking at 2 Hz and are all located south of the active rear
fracture. The second cluster is characterized by stations with weak
amplifications not exceeding three. Note that the amplification pat-
tern clearly distinguishes the active from the inactive part of the
landslide.
In the frequency band 2.3–4.0 Hz, again two clusters are distin-
guished (Figs 3b and d). However, the clustering now segregates
a small group of eight stations with a mean amplification factor
of eight with a peak at 3 Hz. However, amplifications reach up to
eleven in the surroundings of BRIZ2. This cluster separates from
a cluster including all stations north of the rear fracture and three
stations on the Plateau with lower amplifications. Based on this am-
plification pattern, we interpret that the resonant frequency at 3 Hz
corresponds to one or several secondary volumes of the landslide.
The singular value plot derived from FDD and the mean of all
power spectra are shown in Fig. 4(a) and indicate the presence of sev-
eral near-monochromatic noise sources, leading to narrow-banded
spikes in the spectra and joint elevation of higher singular values
(Hjortenberg & Risbo 1975; Brincker et al. 2000). Nevertheless, the
singular values suggest a weak resonant frequency f1 at 1.7 Hz. The
normal-mode shape at this frequency shows a predominant in-phase
north–south oriented polarization. The red-black arrows in Fig. 4(b)
show the normal-mode vectors with the colour corresponding to
the phase information. The polarization is nearly horizontal with
deviations from the horizontal plane between 3◦ and 8◦ (see Table
S2 in the electronic supplement for azimuth and dip information).
This polarization pattern coincides well with the direct surface dis-
placement field measured with GNSS between May and November
2018, that is in the period of the seismic array measurement. Such
alignment of the wavefield polarization perpendicular to dominant
fracture systems could be observed in field and synthetic data ac-
quired on other rock instabilities and around tectonic faults before
(Burjánek et al. 2010, 2019; Pischiutta et al. 2012, 2013; Häusler et
al. 2019). Since all stations are resonating in-phase, these findings
support our interpretation that this frequency band is sensitive to
one large unstable volume.
A second, more pronounced resonant frequency f2 can be ob-
served at 2.8 Hz. The corresponding normal-mode vectors reveal
a heterogeneous pattern: stations west and southwest of BRIZ2
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show a NE–SW in-phase polarization pattern, while BRIZ2 and
stations towards east and southeast are characterized by a strong
NW–SE polarization (Fig. 4c). We interpret this higher resonant
frequency to represent secondary volumes (Häusler et al. 2019).
Therefore, we remove the principal displacement component (i.e.
N–S) from the displacement field measured by GNSS to obtain sec-
ondary displacements between individual markers. This is achieved
by a singular value filter and removing the first singular vector. The
resulting vector field describes the surface displacements in absence
of the dominating N–S component. The horizontal component of
the secondary displacement vectors is perpendicular to the cliff at
the western edge of the instability and points towards east at BRIZ2
and markers east of the seismic station. The secondary displace-
ment field and normal-mode vectors of the second mode are not
in perfect alignment at all locations. However, the secondary dis-
placement vector field shows an E–W diverging component, which
is supported by the E–W polarization of the wavefield. The dividing
line appears to strike N–S in close proximity of BRIZ2. Table S2
provides the azimuth and dip of all stations. Normal-mode vectors
are close to horizontal with deviations between 2◦ and 22◦ to the
horizontal plane.
The resonant frequencies determined by FDD (1.7 and 2.8 Hz,
Fig. 4) were observed at lower frequencies than the peaks in SRSR
(2.0 and 3.0 Hz, Fig. 3). By normalizing the power spectra to a
reference site, source and path effects are removed from the SRSR,
given that vibration sources are at significantly larger distance than
the interstation distance. In contrast, no such normalization is per-
formed for FDD. Therefore, source and path effects might bias the
dynamic response, as the underlying assumption of equally dis-
tributed sources with white noise characteristics is not fully met.
On the other hand, FDD only considers energy correlated between
different recording channels and stations by computing the cross-
power spectral densities, while SRSR only considers the power and
not the phase information. Therefore, the SRSR might contain en-
ergy of local amplification phenomena that are not related to an
underlying normal-mode behaviour. Despite we are unable to ex-
tract the specific reason for these frequency shifts, we still interpret
that both methods are sensitive to the same resonant phenomena due
to the large width of both resonant peaks (1–2.3 Hz and 2.3–4.0 Hz).
4.2 Ambient vibration monitoring
The spectrogram of the permanent seismic station BRIZ2 reveals
that f2 at about 3 Hz can be observed continuously without sig-
nificant variations of the resonant frequency (Fig. 5a). Fig. 5(b)
shows the power spectra of all three seismometer components on
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Figure 3. Seismological mapping based on site-to-reference spectral ratios (SRSR). (a) and (b) Relative seismic amplifications (marker colour) at (2 and 3)
Hz, respectively, clustered into two groups (marker shape) by a k-means++ clustering algorithm. The reference station (317) is assumed to be located outside
the instability on stable ground. (c) and (d) Mean amplification curves and envelope of all observations of each cluster between (1.1 and 2.3) Hz and (2.3 and
4.0) Hz, respectively. Geodata source: Federal Office of Topography.

21 January 2019, which is representative for most times of the year,
showing a broad spectral peak at 3 Hz. Considerably higher am-
plitudes are visible between June and December 2020, related to
drilling activities in proximity of station BRIZ2. f1 between (1.5
and 2.0) Hz is only visible during distinct periods, for example,
from 2 June to 8 July 2019 (Fig. 5c). During these windows, the
amplitude of f2 is also elevated. These events correlate with the
increased Albula river discharge (>25 m3 s–1 ) and is likely a source
effect (e.g. Dı́az et al. 2014; Fig. 5d). River discharge is primarily
governed by snow melt and only secondarily by strong precipitation
events (compare the precipitation index in Fig. 5(d) to snow height
in Fig. 5e). The peak in river discharge in spring 2019 was caused
by large snow amounts in combination with high snow melting rate
(snow height and snow height gradient in Fig. 5e). We hypothesize
that this increased signal power emerging from river discharge is
necessary to excite resonant frequency f1 . However, an additional
amplification effect due to changing site response caused by an
elevated ground water level during snow melt cannot be excluded.
Wavefield polarization (Burjánek et al. 2012) azimuths of con-
tinuous seismic data for three frequency bands (A: 1–2.3 Hz, B:
2.3–4 Hz, C: 4–10 Hz) are illustrated in Fig. 5(f). The azimuth
in frequency band A fluctuates around 150◦ N, increasing towards
190◦ N in fall 2020. Contrary to the polarization derived by FDD,
the polarization vector is not strictly parallel to the principal dis-
placement vector but perpendicular to the southeastern cliff of the
rock instability. After the clockwise rotation in fall 2020, polar-
ization and principal displacement vectors are in good agreement
(∼190◦ ). A particular feature can be observed during periods when
the resonant frequency f1 at about 1.7 Hz is excited (e.g. 2 June
to 8 July 2019). Polarization changes during these periods to an
azimuth of about 110◦ N, and thus in a similar range as bands B
and C. We might argue that the elevated signal power enables the
306 M. Häusler et al.
Figure 4. Normal-mode analysis on the Plateau. (a) First nine singular
values (black) of the frequency domain decomposition modal analysis and
mean multitaper power spectrum (red), indicating two resonant modes f1
and f2 (red markers). Sharp peaks in the power spectrum designate near-
monochromatic noise signals (grey-shaded areas), which are broadened in
the singular value plot due to lower frequency resolution and should not be
interpreted as normal modes. (b) Normal-mode vectors (red-black double
arrows, indicating the phase of the vibration) of the weak fundamental mode
f1 at 1.7 Hz and displacement vectors of GNSS markers between May and
November 2018 (blue). (c) Normal-mode vectors of the more dominant
mode f2 at 2.8 Hz and relative GNSS displacement field after removal of the
first singular vector. Geodata source: Federal Office of Topography.
excitation of a second fundamental mode, dominating the otherwise
persistent N–S directed polarization. However, no array data exist
from a period with an elevated excitation level to describe the modal
behaviour.
Frequency band B shows a counter-clockwise rotation of the az-
imuth starting at 120◦ N in June 2018, accelerating in March 2019
at 115◦ N and flattening towards the end of 2020 to reach 70◦ N. The
azimuth of band C slightly decreased from 107◦ N in June 2018 to
103◦ N in July 2019 and followed the counter-clockwise rotation of
band B to reach 64◦ N in December 2020. This counter-clockwise
rotation is observable in the GNSS-based displacement field af-
ter removing the first singular vector. GNSS markers surrounding
BRIZ2 show a rotation from ∼100◦ N towards 40◦ N between May
2019 and November 2020 (marker 1009 in Fig. 5g). No such rota-
tion can be observed at further distance to BRIZ2. The initialization
of the rapid rotation in June 2019 coincides with a general accel-
eration of the landslide and an increase in sliding dip angle at the
Plateau during spring 2019 (Figs 5h and i).
Based on the good agreement with rotating secondary displace-
ment vectors we interpret that changing polarization is linked to
landslide kinematics. We interpret that in the beginning of the seis-
mological monitoring, extension along a SW–NE oriented frac-
ture network dominated, corresponding to the 120◦ N polarization
at ∼3 Hz and causing the superficial dolomite block to deform to-
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wards SE. We hypothesize that in spring 2019, related to the overall
acceleration of the slide, a N–S to NW–SE oriented fracture system
accommodated a significant part of the deformation, forcing the
blocks to diverge E–W to NE–SW and inducing subsidence at the
Plateau, manifested by the increasing sliding dip angle. The wave-
field polarizes perpendicular to the fracture network and changes
its orientation towards northeast as well. Pischiutta et al. (2013)
showed in numerical models that the stress field, orientation of ex-
tension fractures and polarization of ambient vibrations are closely
related. Polarization monitoring of frequency band B at Brinzauls
showed that the counter-clockwise rotation was already in process
in July 2018 (by 5◦ until March 2019), thus, before a rotation was
visible in surface displacement vectors. Following the interpreta-
tions by Pischiutta et al. (2013), we suggest that this early rotation
was an effect of changing stress conditions, which was followed
by changing landslide kinematics in spring 2019. However, while
wavefield polarization could be used as an immediate proxy for
the orientation of the dominating fracture network and thus for the
anticipated surface deformation vector field in extensional regimes,
there is no direct causality between displacement and polarization.
Even though significant polarization can be measured, the rock for-
mation can show no deformation (Burjánek et al. 2012; Kleinbrod
et al. 2017) or deformation parallel to the fracture plane.
4.3 Earthquake monitoring
Fig. 6(a) shows the empirical spectral modelling amplification of
40 regional seismic events recorded at station BRIZ2. We observe
a first broad amplification peak between (1 and 2.3) Hz reaching
a factor of three. A second amplification peak appears at 3.2 Hz,
reaching a factor of four, confirming the dynamic response deter-
mined by ambient vibration surveys. However, amplification values
might differ between SRSR and empirical spectral modelling due
to different definitions for the reference.
Fig. 6(b) displays each amplification curve with increasing ob-
servation number, whereas the temporal distribution for all observa-
tions is shown in Fig. 6(d). We computed the median amplification
factor between (1 and 4) Hz of each observation and compare it
to the precipitation index (Fig. 6c). The precipitation index (Helm-
stetter & Garambois 2010) is based on daily precipitation sums and
accounts for the decreasing effect of water on the rock mass with
time due to drainage. The comparison of precipitation index and
median amplification indicates a direct correlation. We highlight
observation 10 (label A), when a high precipitation index coincides
with a high median amplification factor of about five. Note that
observation 10 also coincides with the high Albula river discharge
 Site response of the Brinzauls slope instability 307

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Figure 5. Ambient vibration monitoring of the Brinzauls rockslide. (a) Spectrogram of station BRIZ2, geometric mean of both horizontal components. (b)
and (c) Power spectra of all components of BRIZ2 during a period without (21 January 2019) and with (28 June 2019) strong resonance at f1 . Z: vertical
component, N: north component, E: east component. (d) Precipitation index with tc of 14 d at Valbella and Albula river discharge at Tiefencastel. (e) Snow
height at Piz Martegnas on 2430 m elevation and temporal gradient of snow height. (f) Azimuth of wavefield polarization for frequency bands of 1.0–2.3 Hz
(A), 2.3–4.0 Hz (B) and 4.0–10 Hz (C). A 3-d running median filter was applied, hourly measurement results and standard deviation are given in Fig. S3. (g)
First singular vector of the singular value decomposition of the displacement field at the Plateau (black) and secondary displacement vectors at GNSS markers
1002 (orange) and 1009 (red). (h) Displacement rates of GNSS markers 1002 and 1009 (overlapping). (i) Sliding dip angle measured at GNSS markers 1002
and 1009. Note that panels (g) to (i) have a discontinuous time axis to focus on the seismological monitoring period.

during a period of rapid snow melting. Amplification factors were
between three and four during summer 2019 and lower during a rel-
atively dry period starting with observation 23 (label B). This period
ends with a heavy precipitation event on 27 May 2020 (label C),
coinciding with a significant increase in seismic amplification, fol-
lowed by a slow decay over time. This indicates that high water input
directly results in higher seismic amplification. However, outliers
of high amplification also occurred during dry periods. Therefore,
source and path effects might play a role. A potential reason for
increased seismic amplification after precipitation periods might be
the reduction in rock strength and stiffness (i.e. shear modulus) due
to water infiltration (Wong et al. 2016; Yurikov et al. 2018).
308 M. Häusler et al.

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Figure 6. Monitoring of seismic amplification of the Brinzauls landslide based on earthquake recordings. (a) Empirical spectral amplification based on 72
observations from 40 regional seismic events. The solid black line represents the geometric mean of all observations, first standard deviation is given by the
shaded area. (b) Amplification for every observation between (0.8 and 10) Hz. For most seismic events, two observations (north and east component) are
available. However, a low signal-to-noise ration eventually leads to the rejection of one of both. Red lines (labels A to C) indicate the beginning of periods with
significantly lower and higher amplification, respectively. No amplification value is available for white areas due to a signal-to-noise ratio smaller than three at
the corresponding frequency. (c) Precipitation index with respect to the past 14 d at the day of the seismic event (blue) and median amplification value between
(1 and 4) Hz for every seismic event (red). (d) All seismic events used for computation of amplifications with increasing observation number (as shown in
panels b and c). Circle size represents the event magnitude.

5 C O N C L U S I O N S A N D I M P L I C AT I O N S proximity of BRIZ2, which we interpret as an effect of changes in

FOR LANDSLIDE MONITORING the local stress field. This information could be retrieved in real-time
using a single seismic station, highlighting the potential of ambient
The dominating south-directed surface displacement vectors of the
vibration observations as a complementary technique to displace-
landslide coincide with the wavefield polarization at 1.7 Hz. The in-
ment surveys for landslide monitoring on this and potentially other
phase vibration pattern across the Plateau indicates a large but weak
geological mass movements. Nevertheless, the empirical observa-
fundamental resonator limited by the rear fracture and hypotheti-
tions presented here should be verified by laboratory tests or 3-D
cally constrained by a lithological or structural boundary at depth
numerical simulations by monitoring wavefield polarization under
(e.g. by the Raibler layers, see Fig. 1d). The heterogeneous polar-
changing stress conditions over time.
ization at 2.8 Hz indicates fragmentation into separate blocks in the
Seismic amplifications during small seismic events revealed a
dolomite with a predominating east-west component in proximity
large temporal variance of the seismic response that correlates with
of station BRIZ2. These findings are supported by GNSS-based
precipitation history. This has direct implication for the hazard as-
surface displacement measurements. Polarization and amplification
sessment of earthquake-induced slope failure, as the slope is likely
patterns can be used as proxies for displacement vectors and land-
to be more susceptible to failure during periods of high ampli-
slide disaggregation and can be rapidly retrieved by temporal seis-
fication following heavy precipitation events and possibly during
mic arrays. This is especially beneficial before or in the early stage of
periods of increased snow melt. Tracking the seismic response on
continuous landslide monitoring to plan the monitoring setup and to
slope instabilities could be used to calibrate geomechanical and cou-
bypass the early monitoring period, when measured displacements
pled seismo-hydromechanical models in the linear domain to model
are too small to reliably determine displacement vectors. However,
failure during (possibly non-linear) seismic loading (Allstadt et al.
studies on other rock instabilities showed that polarization is not
2018; Chen et al. 2020).
solely governed by fracture geometry, but possibly also by other
parameters such as material stiffness distribution (Häusler et al.
2021).
Monitoring the polarization at BRIZ2 showed an irreversible AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
counter-clockwise rotation for frequencies above 2 Hz, accelerat- This work was financed by ETH fund 0-20361-17. We thank A.
ing in July 2019. This rotation is also evident in the secondary Huwiler and A. Largiadèr (AWN, office for forest and natural haz-
surface displacement vectors, thus supporting our conclusion that ards, Canton of Grisons) and the commune Albula/Alvra for their
wavefield polarization and landslide kinematics are closely linked. collaboration, shared data and unrestricted access to the site. We
The transition from a polarization azimuth of 120◦ N towards 70◦ N thank the companies CSD Thusis and BTG Sargans for sharing re-
coincides with a change of the direction of secondary extension in ports and insights into the geological model and kinematics of the

site. We thank our technician (R. Moser, ETH) and field helpers (J.
Aaron, M. Faber, D. Farsky, J. Holland, U. Kleinbrod, J. Laukenmann
and M. Studer) for their efforts in the field. We are thankful to R.
Racine (Swiss Seismological Service) for maintaining the empirical
spectral modelling amplification software. Any use of trade, firm or
product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply
endorsement by ETH Zurich or the Swiss government.
D ATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y
Data generated in this study and their corresponding metadata are
available on the ETH Research Collection via https://doi.org/10.3
929/ethz-b-000474116. Data from third party data providers are
accessible via the website of the different data providers. Instruc-
tions for data access are given in the metadata on the ETH Research
Collection.
AU T H O R C O N T R I B U T I O N S TAT E M E N T
MH and DF designed the study, MH acquired, processed, and anal-
ysed the seismological data. MH and VG analysed displacement
data. RT and VG compiled the geological model and provided the
geological description of the site. FG provided the geomorpholog-
ical map and supported geological interpretation. All Authors dis-
cussed and interpreted the results. MH wrote the manuscript with
contributions from all co-authors.
C O M P E T I N G I N T E R E S T S S TAT E M E N T
Authors VG and RT are employed by companies, which are both
active in business on the landslide of Brienz/Brinzauls for early
warning service and geological analyses. However, we declare to
have no direct competing interests, as there is no financial support
of the research project by the companies. Similarly, the research
project is not supporting any of the two companies. Both co-authors
are collaborating scientifically on an informal basis in the project.
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S U P P O RT I N G I N F O R M AT I O N
Supplementary data are available at GJ I online.
Figure S1. Geomorphological map of the Brinzauls landslide.
Figure S2. Photographs of the Brinzauls landslide and geophysical
survey setup.
Figure S3. Polarization azimuth at BRIZ2 in three frequency bands.
Figure S4. Polarization dip at BRIZ2 in three frequency bands.
Figure S5. Polarization ellipticity at BRIZ2 in three frequency
bands.
Figure S6. Overview map of regional earthquakes contributing to
the empirical spectral modelling amplification analysis.
Tables S1. Regional earthquakes contributing to the empirical spec-
tral modelling amplification analysis at station BRIZ2.
Tables S2. Normal-mode shape vectors determined by FDD at
1.7 and 2.8 Hz.