Dunham, AM, Kiser, E, Kargel, JS et al. (5 more authors) (2022) Topographic Control on Ground Motions and Landslides From the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. Geophysical Research Letters, 49 (10). e2022GL098582. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Landslides triggered by earthquake shaking pose a significant hazard in active mountain regions. Steep topography promotes gravitational instabilities and can amplify the seismic wavefield; however, the relationship between topographic amplification and landsliding is poorly understood. Here, we use numerical methods to investigate the link between low-frequency ground shaking, topographic amplification, and the landslide distribution from the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake. Results show that the largest landslides initiated where the highest topographic amplification, highest elevations, and steepest slopes converged, typically in glacially-sculpted terrain, with additional controls of rock strength and absolute ground motions. Additionally, the initiation of the largest and most fatal landslide was likely influenced by amplification throughout the rupture due the orientation of the ridge with respect to the propagating wavefield. These results indicate that topographic amplification is one of the key factors for understanding where large and potentially devastating landslides are likely to occur during future major earthquakes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022, The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
Keywords: | coseismic landslides; ground motion modeling; topographic amplification |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Jun 2022 15:04 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jul 2022 14:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2022gl098582 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187546 |