Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2021, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (4): 349-360.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2020.7.2

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Research progress on the morphology and sedimentology of long runout landslides

CHEN Jian1(), CHEN Ruichen1, CUI Zhijiu2   

  1. 1. School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
    2. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2020-03-22 Revised:2020-06-12 Online:2021-07-25 Published:2021-07-25

Abstract:

Rapid and long runout landslides, characterized by huge volume, long travel distance and high speed, threaten the personal and property safety for people living in mountainous areas and piedmont plains. The movement process of this type of landslide is difficult to observe or record directly because it occurs quickly—often at high altitude—and always generates a lot of dust. Therefore, the morphology and sedimentary features of long runout landslide deposits become important evidence for inverting the movement process and helping us understand the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of these hazardous events, which are important for disaster prevention and reduction. This paper reviews the hypothesized long runout mechanism, and discusses the significance of geomorphology and sedimentology in this field. The classification of plan view shape and profile of the long runout landslide deposits are associated with the kinematic information presented in this paper. The characteristics and causes of the geomorphic features (toreva block, hummock, ridge, fault) are also discussed and analyzed. These features are resulted from the uneven movement of the landslide material, and such movement is not only related to the terrain but also affected by cohesive force. The sedimentological characteristics of rapid and long runout landslides are obviously affected by lithology, topography, substrates, etc. In view of the literature on sedimentary structures, the facies model (carapace facies, body facies, basal facies, some sub-facies), preserved stratigraphic sequence and inverse grading of long runout landslides are discussed. Finally, this paper analyzes some research problems on the geomorphology and sedimentology of long runout landslides. It proposes that the priority should be given to investigating the formation mechanism of the sedimentary and geomorphic features of these landslides through a combination of analogue modeling and numerical stimulation, helping to clear the current controversies and improving the understanding of the kinematics of rapid and long runout landslides.

Key words: long runout landslide, morphology, sedimentary structures, kinematic mechanism

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