The quantitative risk assessment of landslides requires the spatial impact probability of their run-out processes to conduct vulnerability assessments and prioritize mitigation measures. Hence, a general framework for three-dimensional (3D) probabilistic landslide run-out hazard evaluation is presented in this paper. In the proposed framework, a continuum mechanics concept-based dynamic numerical model

In this article, we formulate an anisotropic elastoplastic Cosserat continua model for shear failure in stratified geomaterials. Considering the dip angle between local and global coordinates of a formation, a Cosserat elastic anisotropy constitutive matrix under plane strain condition is derived, and cohesion anisotropy is reflected using a microstructural tensor combined-stress invariant method.

The collapse of quasi-saturated sand with entrapped air due to decreasing total confining stress under undrained conditions has been widely reported in engineering practice. This material instability can fundamentally be related to dual effect of occluded gas bubbles: (1) altering undrained shear characteristics and (2) changing the relative compressibility between pore fluid and solid skeleton. Existing

The standard definition of landslide hazard requires the estimation of where, when (or how frequently) and how large a given landslide event may be. The geoscientific community involved in statistical models has addressed the component pertaining to how large a landslide event may be by introducing the concept of landslide-event magnitude scale. This scale, which depends on the planimetric area of

Few surface fault scarps or other obvious surficial geomorphic features record pre-historic earthquakes in the Kashmir Basin (KB) in the northwestern Himalaya Mountains of India. We therefore identified liquefaction features exposed in various cuts and trenches in the area, documented these on geological logs, and geotechnically characterized them in order to determine the likely causative earthquake(s)

Mineral grain size heterogeneity is one of the fundamental reasons leading to differences in rock mechanical behaviours. Several indices have been proposed to quantify grain size heterogeneity, however, the applicability of the existing indices is limited due to various preconditions. An improved grain size heterogeneity index He was proposed in this study. By comparing with the previous index, the

Rock instabilities can represent major risks for local populations depending on their geographical location. Even if different mechanisms are known to trigger rockfalls such as precipitation, seismic activity and freezing, many rockfalls occur during periods when such trigger mechanisms are absent. Some recent studies have pointed out the role of thermal cycling in crack initiation or propagation.

This paper presents findings of the effect of calcium bentonite (Ca-bentonite) and pulp mill fly ash (PFA) on the compressibility behavior, and microstructural evolution of organic soil. A natural soil consisting of 26% organic matter was collected from the wetlands in the Wabasca region, Northern Alberta, Canada. A various mix design was prepared for the laboratory tests with the addition of 5%, 8%

Gassy sediments are frequently encountered in engineering geology and geotechnical engineering. Gas bubbles contained in these sediments significantly change the engineering properties, and further influence the consolidation and creep process. The long term behaviour of gassy sediment is drastically different from that of saturated and unsaturated soils. This study presents an analytical solution

Rainfall infiltration is a key factor that determines the active earth pressure on an earth-retaining structure. Previous investigations on the stability of earth retaining structures were mainly conducted under the assumption that the backfills was dry, saturated, or subjected to a steady unsaturated flow, ignoring the time-varying characteristics of the rainfall infiltration process. Based on the

The breakage behaviour of a pre-crushed carbonate sand sheared within a miniature triaxial loading apparatus is investigated using high-spatial resolution X-ray micro-tomography. Full-field 3D CT images of the sand sample are acquired at different loading stages of the test. This enables the quantitative investigation of the temporal and spatial evolution of soil microstructures throughout the test

Parametric 3D geological modeling facilitates the efficient updating of geological models. A comprehensive review of existing geological modeling methods reveals that two critical issues need to be addressed for realizing parametric 3D geological modeling: (1) complex surface topology caused by direct interpolation of geological data creates a significant obstacle to the parametric characterization

In permafrost regions, roads and soil slopes experience freeze–thaw cycles annually and the soil characteristics (such as strength and conductivity) change irreversibly. Several studies have been conducted on the evaluation of soil damage using soil mechanics principles and electrical measurements. Owing to the limitations of previous studies, such as low efficiency and the inapplicability of real-time

An increase in temperature changes the groundwater density and viscosity, therefore, it is expected that the soil hydraulic conductivity varies with temperature. Beyond this point, thermal loading induces volumetric changes for both sand and clay and may alter soil fabric. These variations might increase or decrease the intrinsic permeability of the soil. A modified temperature-controlled triaxial

Oedometer tests and field emission scanning electron microscope tests of soft clay were carried out to study the microstructure evolution during consolidation process to evaluate the relationship between microstructure and macroscopic characteristics. The results show that many smaller aggregates appeared under consolidation pressure, and shapes of soil particles and pores became more complicated.

The geological term “mélange” is used to indicate a vast group of “chaotic rock” units with a block-in-matrix internal arrangement exhumed in orogenic belts. Geotechnically such units are often defined as “complex formations”, and are commonly associated with flysch-type formations. Such units range from coherent, bedding-concordant broken-formations to fully disrupted, discordant block-in-matrix rock

Soil surface erosion is a common natural phenomenon, considerably leading to land degeneration and environment deterioration. In this study, microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP), a green and sustainable bio-mediated technique to stabilize soils, has been proposed as a promising solution to control surface erosion of the clayey soils. Clayey soil samples with different sand additions

In the context of chemical industry production, mining waste from saline materials, mostly consisting of granular rock salt, is stored in tailing piles. During this process, several deformational mechanisms are involved. The crushed salt displays a significant visco-plastic response. Several processes such as “dislocation related deformation mechanisms” or “mechanisms related to presence of humidity”

Several soil improving systems are available to increase the geotechnical properties of low resistance soils and increase the stability of overlaying constructions. Most of the already available methods make use of injections of more compacted material inside the ground, like: micro-piles, sand compaction piles, stone columns or grouting. Most of these solutions requires vibrations and rotary drilling

The damage caused by a single natural hazard can be amplified in time and space to form a disaster chain. One such chain was induced by a debris flow that occurred on June 17, 2020 along the Xiaojin River on the eastern Tibetan Plateau of China. The debris flow dammed the Xiaojin River, and subsequent dam breaches instigated a multi-hazard chain that flooded many towns upstream; moreover, the flooding

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is one of the most common numerical methods employed for the study of landslide disasters. Herein, this study proposes a method addressing the challenges associated with the selection of contact parameters for DEM blocks (or particles) when simulating landslide hazards. In 2018, two landslides occurred successively at the same slope of Baige, in Tibet, China. To efficiently

Due to rock masses' nonlinear failure property, it is inappropriate to investigate the stability of rock slopes using the traditional SRM (strength reduction method) which is based on the linear MC (Mohr-Coulomb) failure criterion. To conduct 3D analysis (three dimensional) of rock slopes, we propose a 3D-NSRNMM (3D nonlinear strength reduction numerical manifold method) that is based on the nonlinear

Continuous river incisions, heavy precipitation events, reservoir water-level fluctuations, and changes in groundwater flow are the main driving factors of extensive landslide activities in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River in China. Although the triggers for these major landslide events can be technically detected, predicting and mitigating them remains challenging. This is especially the

Historical relics of Jurassic sandstones in southwest China have been subjected to weathering damage. Exfoliation, characterized by the detachment of multiple thin stone layers sub-parallel to the stone surface, is common in sandstone heritage sites. However, its mechanism of action remains poorly understood. In this study, a conceptual model of exfoliation is drawn from the literature and field investigations

Management of energy waste such as high-level waste (HLW) disposal in deep geological repositories is one of most pressing challenges in the context of nuclear energy. The general research question addressed in the present work is how to represent coupled physical processes after the emplacement of heat-emitting waste in such a repository in claystone at multiple scales by numerical models and how

There is a growing interest in the geomechanical behaviour of low performing soils strengthened with alkali-activated materials, which have been promoted as low-carbon-footprint binders. This paper focuses on the performance of a sandy clay stabilised with NaOH-activated blast furnace slag after short (28 days) and long (90 days) curing periods. Triaxial compression experiments were conducted at a

Determining the statistically homogeneous regions is important for engineering geological modeling and promoting systematic research on regional rock mass characteristics and rock engineering designs. This study proposes a comprehensive framework considering multiple discontinuity geometry parameters (e.g., orientation, trace length, density, and cluster characteristics.) to distinguish statistical

The relationship between landslides and rock mass strength is fundamental for assessing landslide hazards. Some researchers have proposed that there is an inverse relationship between the number of landslides and rock mass strength. However, in some tectonically active mountain ranges, higher rates of landsliding appear to be associated with greater rock mass strength. We investigated the relation

The effects of an historical fire were studied on a porous calcarenite coming from an historic building located in Southern Italy. Changes of material properties were investigated on the masonry blocks affected by fire in comparison with the sound stone. They were also compared with thermally induced degradation under controlled heating in laboratory conditions. The stone was affected by a pronounced

By studying the mechanical characteristics of sandstone, particularly its acoustic emission (AE) behaviour and fracture morphology, we can obtain insights into its deformation, stress, and fracture mechanisms, thus promoting knowledge in the field of geology. In this work, the mechanical properties of sandstone samples with different joint angles were investigated by applying shear force and observing

Some deep geological nuclear waste disposal concepts are considering the installation around the waste canisters of bentonite barriers made up of two components: highly compacted blocks to support the canister and a granular buffer material consisting of bentonite pellets to fill the rest of the disposal gallery. The initial characteristics of these two components in terms of dry density, water content

The paper discusses two types of hydraulic structures: a) Hydraulic canals and penstocks. They are sensitive structures which typically do not tolerate ground displacements. Two cases are described: the Izbor canal and the Pampaneira penstock. A free water surface tunnel in the Izbor canal, was badly deformed by a landslide induced by a distant road excavation performed at a lower elevation. The Pampaneira

The microfracture-pore structures and water-rock interactions of eight samples of three typical lithofacies (three limestone, three wackestone, and two mudstone) from the Lower Eagle Ford Formation have been investigated using an integrated methodology. The methods used were X-ray diffraction (XRD), total organic carbon (TOC) content, pyrolysis, thin-section petrography, scanning electron microscopy

There has been much new traffic engineering construction on the loess plateau, where tunnels can be damaged by collapses based on the stability of the tunnel. Although there are currently two methods, including the laboratory test and the in situ large-scale pit immersion test, to evaluate loess collapsibility, the laboratory test method is inaccurate, and the in situ large-scale pit immersion test

Warm permafrost is a challenging geological material for infrastructure engineering. This study presents the observed damage, ground temperature, and settlement at varying depths from three-year continuous monitoring of two selected highway embankment segments along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in warm permafrost areas, including one conventional embankment and the other with heat pipes on the sunny slope

With the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), water impoundment began in 2003. The reservoir water level (RWL) has been annually adjusted to a fluctuation level between 145 and 175 m above sea level (a.s.l.) since 2008. Numerous large scale ancient landslides have been reactivated in the region. This paper focuses on the reactivation characteristics and influence of hydrological inducing

Investigation on compression behavior of bentonite is an important issue for designing the artificial barriers in a geological repository for nuclear waste disposal. However, significantly different from that of non-expansive clays, normal consolidation line of bentonite may be nonlinear in e-lnp plane. Obviously, the linear equation of normal consolidation line in conventional constitutive models

Tailings dam failures have received significant attention in recent years due to the catastrophic downstream consequences, as evidenced by the 2019 Feijão disaster in Brazil and numerous precedents. This paper presents a timely review of tailings flows with the support of a comprehensive global database of 63 cases that have been remotely analyzed through a compilation of satellite imagery, digital

While many or most geotechnical problems at open-pit mines are related to geological structures or discontinuities, highwall movement and failure can also occur as a consequence of nonstructural geological factors. Nonstructural causes of movement are not amenable to detection by conventional geotechnical sensing techniques such as LiDAR. In this case study, we applied hyperspectral remote sensing

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the impact of environmental variables on soil cracking in natural conditions. The test was performed on a large soil specimen of initial size 3 × 3 × 0.5 m exposed to real atmospheric conditions during one year, to include different seasonal weather conditions. The specimen was instrumented to monitor and record the main variables within the soil

Rainfall is among the most relevant triggering factors of landslides. With the aim of defining a model of the influence of rainfall on deep landslides, this paper presents data of a long-term monitoring of pore water pressures in a clayey earthflow, and the results of many field permeability tests carried out with several procedures. Pore water pressures are being monitored in the Costa della Gaveta

Landslides pose threats to the safety and property of people living in mountainous areas like Hong Kong. Dependence of landslide travel distance on initial conditions and travel routes has broad implications for assessing the landslide risks. In this study, the controlling topographic and geologic factors for travel distances of open hillslope landslides and channelized debris flows are examined based

Clays are widely used in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering applications and it is crucial to understand its behaviour for the dynamic field conditions. The presence of a temperature gradient across clayey soils that exhibit semi-permeable membrane (or osmotic) behaviour may promote a number of complex processes, including thermal expansion or consolidation, thermally induced osmosis, thermal

The horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method based on ambient noise recordings is a popular and efficient approach to estimate the seismic site effect parameters. This method is sufficiently robust in determining the predominant frequency (f0) of the site, whereas its estimate of the amplification factor lacks consistency because generation mechanisms, source locations and proportions of

In the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW), the historic earthquake record is often insufficient to provide inputs to seismic-hazard analyses or to inform ground-motion predictions for certain seismic sources (e.g., the Cascadia Subduction Zone, CSZ). As a result, paleoseismic studies are commonly used to infer information about the seismic hazard. However, among the many forms of coseismic evidence, soil

Special hydrogeological properties of granite regions control leachate migration in municipal solid waste (MSW) unlined landfills there. This study aimed to investigate leachate migration at an unlined landfill located in a granite region and explore an in-situ borehole groundwater TDS-profile method (BGTM) for identifying vertical distribution of leachate plume at landfill sites in granite regions

Rockburst is a type of dynamic failure and often causes considerable damage during the construction of underground engineering. Geological structures have been regarded as a crucial factor influencing rockburst distribution, and more related research is urgently needed. This paper presents microseismic monitoring information, characteristics of 151 rockbursts, and various structural planes collected

Thermally induced microcracks alter the mechanical properties of rocks. Mode I loading prevails in nature, while rocks are typically weak in tension. Understanding the effects of pre-existing thermal microcracks on the microcracking mechanisms of granite under mode I loading is of both scientific and practical value. We conducted three-point bending tests on pre-notched semi-circular bend Hong Kong

To investigate the effect of water on the fracture mechanism and associated acoustic emission (AE) characteristics, triaxial compression experiments were performed on dry and water-saturated tight sandstone specimens sampled from the Sichuan Basin, China. The saturated specimen was precisely controlled by different drainage conditions at the two ends. The detailed spatiotemporal distribution of AE

In geological surveys of coastal regions, data interpretation and site identification are usually affected by underground water (including salinity). This study aimed to investigate the effect of pore-water salinity on soil identification via in situ CPTs. Combinations of triaxial shearing, cone penetration, and vane shear tests were also performed at a laboratory scale on Lianyungang marine clay with

In the process of impact-rebound, rockfalls with an initial rotational speed (RS) often undergo a violent transformation between rotational energy and translational energy, which may affect the coefficient of restitution (COR). However, owing to the complexity of experimental simulations and the influence mechanism, this issue is often neglected during research. Therefore, in this study, four representative

Strength behavior of thermally-damaged rock is quite different from that of undamaged or intact rock. In this study, a concept of degradation of geological strength index (GSI) is used and a GSI-softening model in the framework of generalized Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criterion is proposed to characterize the strength behavior of thermally-damaged rock. The proposed GSI-softening model is then verified

We assess the performance of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method in fractured rock formations of very low transmissivity (e.g. T ≈ 10−9–10−10 m2/s for sub-mm apertures) and, more specifically, to image fracture widening induced by high-pressure injections. A field-scale experiment was conducted at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (Sweden) in a tunnel situated at 410 m depth. The tracer test was

Capturing the failure mechanisms responsible for static liquefaction is a challenging task for the zoning of landslide susceptibility. While geomechanical models accounting for solid-fluid coupling can identify locations prone to flowslides, their performance in regional settings is impacted by the lack of procedures to replicate accurately stratigraphic heterogeneities. To mitigate this inconvenience

This study employs microstructural and mineralogical characterization to analyze deformation within the Chungliao Tunnel (Formosan Freeway, Taiwan) caused by the movement along the Chishan Fault, as well as its effect on accelerated creep along the fault. The results reveal pyrite-filled fissures and a large amount of wavy extinction quartz and bent muscovite. The mineral particles are fragmented and

A novel approach to construct site-dependent ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) was implemented to build a uniform hazard response spectra (UHRS) using a reservoir site in southern Taiwan as an example. This innovation minimizes the GMPE uncertainties to avoid over-estimations in a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). We selected ground-motion records with similar site conditions from

In geological engineering, the unsaturation and non-uniformity of soil have significant influence on slope stability. However, they were common neglected in published literature. Based on the three-dimensional (3D) rotational failure mechanism, this paper introduces a method that combines the gravity increase method and the upper bound theorem, to evaluate the factor of safety (FS) of 3D stepped slope