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Topographic stress control on bedrock landslide size

Nature Geoscience volume 14, pages 307–313 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Landslides are a major natural hazard and act as a primary driver of erosion, chemical weathering and organic carbon transfer in mountain ranges. Evaluating the impact of landslides on Earth systems requires knowledge about the controls on their size, which are not well understood. Here we show that topographic stress, resulting from the interaction between tectonic stress and topography, influences bedrock landslide size at landscape scales by modulating the subsurface material strength through fracturing and weathering. Using a three-dimensional topographic stress model, we characterize the spatial pattern of subsurface open-fracture zones in a crystalline-rock terrain of the eastern Tibetan mountains. Then, we compare the predicted open-fracture zones with 982 mapped bedrock landslides. The results show that areas with deeper subsurface open-fracture zones tend to accommodate larger landslides. This is probably due to the influences of topographically induced fractures on the material strength and groundwater flow paths and rates. We conclude that the extent of hillslope failure depends on both distant tectonic forces and local topography, which has implications for hazard mitigation, landscape evolution and the global carbon cycle.

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Fig. 1: Map view of the study area.
Fig. 2: Comparison between bedrock landslide scar area and FPmax.
Fig. 3: Comparison between landslide area and topographic metrics.
Fig. 4: Comparison between bedrock landslide scar area and controls of seismic shaking and precipitation.
Fig. 5: Comparison between FPmax and other potential controls.

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Data availability

The datasets of precipitation- and earthquake-induced landslides, together with the calculated proxies, are archived at the Caltech Research Data Repository (https://doi.org/10.22002/D1.1703).

Code availability

MATLAB codes used for data analysis can be obtained from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Poly3D is proprietary software that can be purchased at https://www.software.slb.com.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by NSF EAR-1945431 awarded to S.M. The authors thank S. Cui, P. van der Beek and A. Duvall for constructive reviews, and G. E. Hilley, J. J. Roering, J. T. Perron, I. J. Larsen, A. J. West, K. Shao, J. Higa, S. J. Martel, A. Yin, D. A. Paige, D. C. Jewitt and J. P. Prancevic for helpful discussions. The authors acknowledge software donations from Midland Valley Inc. and Schlumberger.

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Author notes

  1. Gen K. Li

    Present address: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Gen K. Li & Seulgi Moon

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Contributions

G.L. and S.M. conceived the study. G.L. conducted the landslide mapping. S.M. performed the topographic stress modelling, and G.L. compiled the necessary input data for the model. G.L. and S.M. analysed the results and wrote the manuscript together.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gen K. Li or Seulgi Moon.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Geoscience thanks Shenghua Cui, Peter van der Beek and Alison Duvall for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Stefan Lachowycz.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Location of landslides with respect to ridge and channel for earthquake- and precipitation-induced landslides.

a, b, All landslides with areas > 5,000 m2, (c, d) bedrock landslides with areas > 20,000 m2, and (e, f) large bedrock landslides with scar areas > 40,000 m2 are shown. The distance to ridge is calculated as the steepest decent distance from the highest point of landslide scar to the nearest ridgelines, and the distance to channel is calculated as the steepest decent distance from the lowest point of landslide scar to the nearest channel following the procedure described in a previous study46. The distances are normalized by the total length of the hillslope in which the landslide is located. The diameters of the circles are linearly scaled with the scar areas of the landslide (Supplementary Information).

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Sections S1–S4 and Figs. 1–10.

Supplementary Tables 1–4

Table 1. Compilation of stress measurements near our study area. Table 2. Stress model parameter values used in this study. Table 3. Correlation coefficient and P value for landslide metrics and 14 potential controls. Table 4. Proportion of bedrock landslides located in FPmax higher than expected.

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Li, G.K., Moon, S. Topographic stress control on bedrock landslide size. Nat. Geosci. 14, 307–313 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00739-8

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