Distribution pattern of earthquake-induced landslides triggered by the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Tolga Gorum*, Xuanmei Fan, Cees J. van Westen, Run Qiu Huang, Qiang Xu, Chuan Tang, Gonghui Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

552 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results of an extensive study of the mapping the distribution of landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, on 12 May 2008. An extensive landslide interpretation was carried out using a large set of optical high resolution satellite images (e.g. ASTER, ALOS, Cartosat-1, SPOT-5 and IKONOS) as well as air photos for both the pre- and post-earthquake situation. Landslide scarps were mapped as points using multi-temporal visual image interpretation taking into account shape, tone, texture, pattern, elevation and ridge and valley orientation. Nearly 60,000 individual landslide scarps were mapped. The landslide distribution map was compared with the inventory map that was prepared directly after the earthquake, which contains about 11,000 individual landslide points, through the calculation of normalized landslide isopleths maps. Remarkable differences were observed, as the earlier inventory mapping did not consider the pre-earthquake situation and did not consider all individual landslides.As part of the landslide inventory, landslides were identified that had blocked the drainage and had formed landslide dams. The landslide distribution was compared with a number of aspects, such as the seismic parameters (distance to epicenter, distance to fault rupture, co-seismic fault geometry and co-seismic slip distribution), and geology. The most remarkable correlation found was with the co-seismic slip distribution and the fault geometry. Landslide distribution in the section of the fault that had mainly a thrust component with low angle fault plane was found to be much higher than the sections that had steeper fault angles and a major strike slip component.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)152-167
Number of pages16
JournalGeomorphology
Volume133
Issue number3-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Oct 2011
Externally publishedYes

Funding

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 ). The authors acknowledge Prof. Li Yong, Dr. Liu Hanfu, Mr. Chen Wei and Mr. Li Weile from Chengdu University of Technology in China for their suggestions and supports during the fieldwork. We acknowledge that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), GeoEye foundation, and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provided the data for this research. We'd like to give our special thanks to Niek Rengers for his efforts on the collaboration between ITC and the State Key Laboratory of Geo-hazard Prevention, Chengdu University of Technology, and to David Petley and Oliver Korup for their constructive and helpful comments.

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
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science21403002

    Keywords

    • Earthquake-induced landslide
    • Landslide distribution
    • Longmenshan
    • Sichuan
    • Wenchuan earthquake

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