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Relationship between landslides and active normal faulting in the epicentral area of the AD 1556 M~8.5 Huaxian Earthquake, SE Weihe Graben (Central China)

  • Hydrogeology and Geo-hazards
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Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of the landslides developed in the epicentral area of AD 1556 M~8.5 Huaxian Earthquake, and discuss their relations to the active normal faults in the SE Weihe Graben, Central China. The results from analyzing high-resolution remote-sensing imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs), in combination with field survey, demonstrate that: (i) the landslides observed in the study area range from small-scale debris/rock falls to large-scale rock avalanches; (ii) the landslides are mostly developed upon steep slopes of ≥30°; and (iii) the step-like normalfault scarps along the range-fronts of the Huashan Mountains as well as the thick loess sediments in the Weinan area may facilitate the occurrence of large landslides. The results presented in this study would be helpful to assess the potential landslide hazards in densely-populated areas affected by active normal faulting.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Prof. Dong Jia, Dr. Maomao Wang and Dr. Xiaojun Wu for their field assistance and helpful discussion on an early draft. We also thank the reviewers and editors for the constructive suggestions which greatly improved the manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41502203), the Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Scholars of China (awarded to G. Rao), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY15D02001), and a Science Project (No. 23253002) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12583-017-0900-z.

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  1. School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Gang Rao & Yali Cheng

  2. Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Gang Rao, Aiming Lin & Bing Yan

  3. School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Bing Yan

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Rao, G., Cheng, Y. L., Lin, A. M., et al., 2017. Relationship between Landslides and Active Normal Faulting in the Epicentral Area of the AD 1556 M~8.5 Huaxian Earthquake, SE Weihe Graben (Central China). Journal of Earth Science, 28(3): 545-554. doi:10.1007/s12583-017-0900-z. http://en.earth-science.net

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Rao, G., Cheng, Y., Lin, A. et al. Relationship between landslides and active normal faulting in the epicentral area of the AD 1556 M~8.5 Huaxian Earthquake, SE Weihe Graben (Central China). J. Earth Sci. 28, 545–554 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-017-0900-z

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