Control of style-of-faulting on spatial pattern of earthquake-triggered landslides

T. Gorum, E. J.M. Carranza*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Predictive mapping of susceptibility to earthquake-triggered landslides (ETLs) commonly uses distance to fault as spatial predictor, regardless of style-of-faulting. Here, we examined the hypothesis that the spatial pattern of ETLs is influenced by style-of-faulting based on distance distribution analysis and Fry analysis. The Yingxiu–Beichuan fault (YBF) in China and a huge number of landslides that ruptured and occurred, respectively, during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake permitted this study because the style-of-faulting along the YBF varied from its southern to northern parts (i.e. mainly thrust-slip in the southern part, oblique-slip in the central part and mainly strike-slip in the northern part). On the YBF hanging-wall, ETLs at 4.4–4.7 and 10.3–11.5 km from the YBF are likely associated with strike- and thrust-slips, respectively. On the southern and central parts of the hanging-wall, ETLs at 7.5–8 km from the YBF are likely associated with oblique-slips. These findings indicate that the spatial pattern of ETLs is influenced by style-of-faulting. Based on knowledge about the style-of-faulting and by using evidential belief functions to create a predictor map based on proximity to faults, we obtained higher landslide prediction accuracy than by using unclassified faults. When distance from unclassified parts of the YBF is used as predictor, the prediction accuracy is 80 %; when distance from parts of the YBF, classified according to style-of-faulting, is used as predictor, the prediction accuracy is 93 %. Therefore, mapping and classification of faults and proper spatial representation of fault control on occurrence of ETLs are important in predictive mapping of susceptibility to ETLs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3189-3212
Number of pages24
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
Volume12
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Oct 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Islamic Azad University (IAU).

Funding

The first author thanks Cees J. van Westen for his encouragement and giving the opportunity to work in Longmen Shan region after the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. He thanks also Run Qiu Huang and Qiang Xu of the State Key Laboratory of Geo-hazards Prevention and Geo-environment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, for their support and kind hospitality during fieldwork. This research was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program ‘973’ Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2008CB425801) and by the United Nations University—ITC School for Disaster Geo-Information Management ( www.itc.nl/unu/dgim) .

FundersFunder number
ITC School for Disaster Geo-Information Management
National Basic Research Program ‘973’ Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China2008CB425801
United Nations University

    Keywords

    • 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
    • Distance distribution analysis
    • Evidential belief functions
    • Fry analysis
    • Geographic information system
    • Yingxiu–Beichuan fault

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