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Effects of slope instability on coseismic landslide susceptibility during earthquakes

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Abstract

Hazard mapping of earthquake induced landslides depends on precise understanding of how slope instability influences coseismic landslide susceptibility during earthquakes. It was theoretically mentioned that destabilized landslides could move with weaker seismic motion; however, it has not been demonstrated through field monitoring data. This study interprets continuous observations of seismic motion and displacement within a coastal landslide whose factor of safety was gradually decreasing due to toe erosion. In addition to steady-state movement, coseismic landslide displacements of 0.2–1.2 mm occurred during three earthquakes within the observation period. Peak ground acceleration from these events ranged from 9.6 to 28.5 cm/s2 and fell short of values reported to date. Coseismic landslide displacement did not occur while the landslide was stationary even during much greater peak ground acceleration. Critical acceleration, the magnitude of the acceleration at which the landslide initiates, was found to decrease with increases in landslide instability. Coseismic landslide displacements were found to occur in cases of weaker seismic motion with re-occurrence of a large slide event. For smaller volumes of the moving body, seismic wave coherency within the landslide increased. As a result, the smaller seismic motion was able to initiate landslide movement. Landslides which experience toe erosion due to wave action or cyclic inundation by an adjacent water body or those with pore water pressure enhanced by precipitation likely express reduced safety factors. Risk assessment for landslides such as these requires closer consideration of the degree of landslide instability.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The comments from two anonymous reviewers greatly help improve the manuscript. We obtained earthquake catalogue and meteorological data from the Japan Meteorological Agency. We used the General Mapping Tool (Wessel and Smith, 1991) to generate figures presented in this paper.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP17H04734, JP20H01984, JP21K19854, and JP22H01309. We received financial assistance through the collaborative research program of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University (29-B01), and by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan under its Earthquake and Volcano Hazards Observation and Research Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, Japan

    Issei Doi & Sumio Matsuura

  2. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Hikaru Osawa

  3. Japan Conservation Engineers and Co., Ltd, Minato, Japan

    Tatsuya Shibasaki & Shinichi Tosa

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  1. Issei Doi
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  2. Sumio Matsuura
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  3. Hikaru Osawa
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  4. Tatsuya Shibasaki
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  5. Shinichi Tosa
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Field investigation and observation were performed by all the authors. Data analysis was performed by Issei Doi and Hikaru Osawa. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Issei Doi, and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Issei Doi.

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Doi, I., Matsuura, S., Osawa, H. et al. Effects of slope instability on coseismic landslide susceptibility during earthquakes. Bull Eng Geol Environ 81, 515 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-03015-0

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