Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2021, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (2): 46-57.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2020.9.4

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Research progress on landslides and dammed lakes in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

YIN Zhiqiang1(), WEI Gang2,3,*(), QIN Xiaoguang4, LI Wenjuan1, ZHAO Wuji5   

  1. 1. China Institute of Geo-environment Monitoring, Beijing 100081, China
    2. Qinghai Environmental Geological Prospecting Bureau, Xining 810007, China
    3. Key Laboratory of Qinghai Environmental Geology, Xining 810007, China
    4. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
    5. Binzhou University, Binzhou 256600, China
  • Received:2020-06-17 Revised:2020-08-25 Online:2021-03-25 Published:2021-04-03
  • Contact: WEI Gang

Abstract:

As ecological protection and high quality development of the Yellow River Basin become part of a national strategy, prevention and control of landslide disasters in this region has become the fundamental problem that needs to be resolved urgently. Large variation in terrain elevation has historically caused frequent earthquakes and heavy rainfalls, which resulted in a wide distribution of highly hazardous ancient landslides and landslide-dammed lakes. In recent years, this region has become a hotspot for studying the development and evolutionary mechanisms of landslides and the effect of landslide-dammed lake outbursts. In this contribution, we summed up seven major research progress in the region based on a comprehensive review of our own study results over the past 20 years, including landslide surveys and evaluations, test analysis reports, and disaster prevention and mitigation outcomes, combined with published studies by other researchers. The areas of progress include investigation and risk assessment of ancient landslides, temporo-spatial distribution of landslides and its controlling factors, duration and damage of typical ancient landslide-dammed lakes, utilization of ancient landslide deposits, and landslide disaster prevention and mitigation. We also identified four scientific problems that merit additional attention in future researches on the ancient landslides, dammed-lake deposits, river terraces, and effect of dammed lake outburst in the region. This contribution provides a valuable reference for revealing the primary controlling factors of landslide development and dammed lake formation during the geological history of the upper Yellow River, exploring the dynamic mechanisms of landslide development and landslide response to earthquakes and rain falls, and expanding the role of Quaternary geology in applied research on the evolution of ancient landslides.

Key words: landslides, dammed lakes, spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, key triggering factor, upper reaches of the Yellow River

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