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Understanding landslide behavior over medium and long timescales is crucial for predicting landslide hazard and constructing accurate landscape evolution models. The behavior of landslides in soil that undergo periodic displacements, termed earthflows or compound soil slides, is especially difficult to forecast at these timescales. This is because velocities can increase by orders of magnitude over annual to decadal timescales, due to processes such as changing recharge conditions, erosion of the landslide toe, and retrogression of the landslide head. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the Schlucher landslide, an unusual earthflow that is perched above the village of Malbun, Liechtenstein. This landslide had been displacing by 10 to 20 cm/year until 2015, when displacements on the order of 2 m/year occurred from 2016 to 2018. These large displacements damaged landslide mitigation measures, caused numerous surface deformation features, and threatened the local population downstream of the earthflow. This landslide has an unusually long monitoring record, with accurate displacement and climatic data available since 1983. We analyze this nearly 40-year monitoring time series to estimate recharge from snowmelt and rainfall, and its correlation with displacement. We also analyze recently collected, high-resolution surface and subsurface data in order to understand landslide response to recharge, landslide kinematics through time, and catastrophic failure potential. We find that interannual displacements can be explained with variations in recharge; however, periodic surges with recurrence times of tens of years must be explained by other mechanisms. In particular, recharge into the landslide during the recent acceleration (2016 to 2018) was not anomalously high. Instead, we argue that loss of internal strength is responsible for this recent acceleration period, and that this mechanism should be considered when forecasting the surge potential for certain earthflows and soil slides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid mapping of event landslides is crucial to identify the areas affected by damages as well as for effective disaster response. Traditionally, such maps are generated with visual interpretation of remote sensing imagery (manned/unmanned airborne systems or spaceborne sensors) and/or using pixel-based and object-based methods exploiting data-intensive machine learning algorithms. Recent works have explored the use of convolutional neural networks (CNN), a deep learning algorithm, for mapping landslides from remote sensing data. These methods follow a standard supervised learning workflow that involves training a model using a landslide inventory covering a relatively small area. The trained model is then used to predict landslides in the surrounding regions. Here, we propose a new strategy, i.e., a progressive CNN training relying on combined inventories to build a generalized model that can be applied directly to a new, unexplored area. We first prove the effectiveness of CNNs by training and validating on event landslides inventories in four regions after earthquakes and/or extreme meteorological events. Next, we use the trained CNNs to map landslides triggered by new events spread across different geographic regions. We found that CNNs trained on a combination of inventories have a better generalization performance, with a bias towards high precision and low recall scores. In our tests, the combined training model achieved the highest (Matthews correlation coefficient) MCC score of 0.69 when mapping landslides in new unseen regions. The mapping was done on images from different optical sensors, resampled to a spatial resolution of 6 m, 10 m, and 30 m. Despite a slightly reduced performance, the main advantage of combined training is to overcome the requirement of a local inventory for training a new deep learning model. This implementation can facilitate automated pipelines providing fast response for the generation of landslide maps in the post-disaster phase. In this study, the study areas were selected from seismically active zones with a high hydrological hazard distribution and vegetation coverage. Hence, future works should also include regions from less vegetated geographic locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past exploration missions have revealed that the lunar topography is eroded through mass wasting processes such as rockfalls and other types of landslides, similar to Earth. We have analyzed an archive of more than 2 million high-resolution images using an AI and big data-driven approach and created the first global map of 136.610 lunar rockfall events. Using this map, we show that mass wasting is primarily driven by impacts and impact-induced fracture networks. We further identify a large number of currently unknown rockfall clusters, potentially revealing regions of recent seismic activity. Our observations show that the oldest, pre-Nectarian topography still hosts rockfalls, indicating that its erosion has been active throughout the late Copernican age and likely continues today. Our findings have important implications for the estimation of the Moon's erosional state and other airless bodies as well as for the understanding of the topographic evolution of planetary surfaces in general. In this study, the authors present a global map of rockfalls on the lunar surface and determine impact events as short- and long-term driver for rockfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use multitemporal analyses based on Synthetic Aperture Radar differential interferometry (DInSAR) to study the slope adjacent to the large Punatsangchhu-I hydropower plant, a concrete gravity dam under construction in Bhutan since 2009. Several slope failures affected the site since 2013, probably as a consequence of toe undercutting of a previously unrecognised active landslide. Our results indicate that downslope displacement, likely related to the natural instability, was already visible in 2007 on various sectors of the entire valley flank. Moreover, the area with active displacements impinging on the dam site has continuously increased in size since 2007 and into 2018, even though stabilization measures have been implemented since 2013. Stabilisation measures currently only focus on a small portion of the slope, however, the unstable area is larger than previously evaluated. Highly damaged rock is present across many areas of the entire valley flank, indicating that the volumes involved may be orders of magnitude higher than the area on which stabilisation efforts have been concentrated after the 2013 failure. The results highlight that satellite-based DInSAR could be systematically used to support decision making processes in the different phases of a complex hydropower project, from the feasibility study, to the dam site selection and construction phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedrock aquifers in alpine catchments are important regional sources of freshwater. Data regarding bedrock groundwater-recharge processes are scarce and governing dynamics are poorly understood. The main datasets used to constrain regional groundwater recharge and flow, so far, have been based on indirect methods (environmental isotopes, river discharge rates, tunnel inflows). Here, a unique dataset is presented of long-term pore-water-pressure measurements from five deep boreholes situated in the upper reaches of a mountain slope at 1,500–2,300 m above sea level. In addition to multilevel pore pressure records, a detailed analysis of the hydrogeological conditions in the Alpine catchment is provided, along with the results from investigations of groundwater recharge mechanisms in response to variations in climatic conditions and hydraulic rock-mass properties. The recorded pressure data show annual pressure variations with amplitudes of 5–45 m and responses within a few days to summer rainstorms in the available depth range of 45–277 m below ground surface. One-dimensional analytical pore-pressure diffusion models and numerical infiltration models were applied to investigate pore-pressure dynamics and water-table variations. The model results reproduced the following parameters for the uppermost 100-m-thick layer: the observed amplitudes, rates and delays of pressure increase with porosities of 0.05–0.1%, specific storage of 5E-5 to 5E-7 m-1, and hydraulic diffusivities of 1E-1 to 1E-3 m2/s. Boreholes located in high-diffusivity areas (strongly fractured bedrock below coarse slope debris) had the strongest pressure variations and were most sensitive to weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint set spacing is a fundamental parameter in the determination of rock mass quality and can be measured in situ by means of, e.g., scanline surveys and/or by remote sensing techniques, such as photogrammetric analyses. In many Alpine areas, rock mass outcrops are not easily accessible, and geomechanical propexrties can be measured only in a few unevenly distributed locations, which are often separated by large distances (in the order of hundreds of meters). Geostatistical techniques have been explored to achieve a reliable estimate of rock mass properties in unreachable zones. This work aims to estimate joint set spacing of outcropping rock masses and the associated uncertainty, using photogrammetric models and geostatistical modeling, in an area of about 30 km2, located in the Aar Massif of the Swiss Central Alps. Since the joint set spacing is strongly related to fracture genesis, joints were subdivided according to their type and age into three younger exfoliation joint sets and older tectonic joint sets. Each fracture set spacing was analyzed by variography and its spatial distribution was estimated using Sequential Gaussian Simulations. The present research proves that photogrammetric techniques combined with geostatistical modeling can be satisfactorily applied to develop predictive maps of joint spacing, providing that the geological processes governing the formation of joints are taken into account. Moreover, predictive maps must be associated with the corresponding uncertainty maps. Finally, in mountainous area, whenever a full three-dimensional approach is not feasible due to the absence of subsurface data, at least the ground altitude, besides latitude and longitude, has to be included in the geostatistical modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cumulative elastic and inelastic strain and associated internal stress changes as well as damage evolution over time in brittle rocks control the long-term evolution of the rockmass around underground openings or the land surface settlement. This long-term behaviour is associated with time-dependent deformation and is commonly investigated under static load (creep) conditions in laboratory scale. In this study, low Jurassic and Cobourg limestone samples were tested at different static load levels in unconfined conditions to examine the time to failure. Comparisons are made with longterm testing data in granites and limestones associated with the Canadian nuclear waste program and other data from the literature. Failure typically occurred within the time limits of the test program (4 months) with axial (differential) stress levels near or above the crack damage threshold (CD) estimated from baseline testing. The results also suggest that the time to failure of limestone is longer than that of granite at a given driving stress. Further insight into samples that did not reach failure was investigated and it was found that there was a clear division between failure and no failure samples based on the Maxwell viscosity of the samples tested (indicating that viscosity changes near the yield threshold of these rocks. Furthermore, samples showed a clear tendency towards failure within minutes to hours when loaded above CD and no failure was shown for samples loaded below CI (crack initiation threshold). Samples loaded between CD and CI show a region of uncertainty, with some failing and other not at similar driving stress-ratios. Although such testing is demanding in terms of setup, control of conditions, continuous utilization of test and data acquisition equipment and data processing, it yields important information about the long-term behaviour of brittle rocks, such as the expect time to failure and the visco-elastic behaviour. The information presented in this paper can be utilized for preliminary numerical studies to gain an understanding of potential impact of long-term deformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Switzerland, the Opalinus Clay is under consideration as a potential host rock for deep geological storage of nuclear waste. The Swiss concept involves high-level waste containers emplaced in small-diameter drifts of roughly 3 m. At the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory, a short mine-by experiment (EZ-B) was executed in 2005 with the objective of characterising the excavation-induced damage through an interpretation of integrated field data. The damage zone was found to consist of two parts. Fracture mapping from drillcores and televiewer images revealed a thin inner zone of macroscopic fracturing (20 cm) and devoid of borehole instabilities as well as coinciding with the lowest P-wave characteristics (normalised amplitudes and velocities). The outer zone (50-80 cm) was defined by increasing P-wave characteristics and evidence of borehole instabilities. Supplementing the data interpretation, a simplified numerical elastic stress analysis indicated that the rock mass in the sidewalls and upper western haunch are the most susceptible to spalling. In these regions, stress levels only just reach a spalling limit around 0.05 in the inner fractured zone, suggesting that the zone of macro-fracturing around the niche is not significant. It is postulated that the physical manifestation of the relatively weak bedding plane strength is dominated by bedding-perpendicular displacement as opposed to bedding-parallel shear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper represents a summary about our research projects conducted between 2003 and 2015 related to the mechanical behaviour of Opalinus Clay at Mont Terri. The research summarized covers a series of laboratory and field tests that address the brittle failure behaviour of Opalinus Clay, its undrained and effective strength, the dependency of petro-physical and mechanical properties on total suction, hydro-mechanically coupled phenomena and the development of a damage zone around excavations. On the laboratory scale, even simple laboratory tests are difficult to interpret and uncertainties remain regarding the representativeness of the results. We show that suction may develop rapidly after core extraction and substantially modifies the strength, stiffness, and petro-physical properties of Opalinus Clay. Consolidated undrained tests performed on fully saturated specimens revealed a relatively small true cohesion and confirmed the strong hydro-mechanically coupled behaviour of this material. Strong hydro-mechanically coupled processes may explain the stability of cores and tunnel excavations in the short term. Pore-pressure effects may cause effective stress states that favour stability in the short term but may cause longer-term deformations and damage as the pore-pressure dissipates. In-situ observations show that macroscopic fracturing is strongly influenced by bedding planes and faults planes. In tunnel sections where opening or shearing along bedding planes or faults planes is kinematically free, the induced fracture type is strongly dependent on the fault plane frequency and orientation. A transition from extensional macroscopic failure to shearing can be observed with increasing fault plane frequency. In zones around the excavation where bedding plane shearing/shearing along tectonic fault planes is kinematically restrained, primary extensional type fractures develop. In addition, heterogeneities such as single tectonic fault planes or fault zones substantially modify the stress redistribution and thus control zones around the excavation where new fractures may form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the investigations and actions taken to reduce risk and prevent casualties from a catastrophic 210,000 m rockslope failure, which occurred near the village of Preonzo in the Swiss Alps on May 15, 2012. We describe the geological predisposition and displacement history before and during the accelerated creep stage as well as the development and operation of an efficient early warning system. The failure of May 15, 2012, occurred from a large and retrogressive instability in gneisses and amphibolites with a total volume of about 350,000 m, which formed an alpine meadow 1250 m above the valley floor. About 140,000 m of unstable rock mass remained in place and might collapse partially or completely in the future. The instability showed clearly visible signs of movements along a tension crack since 1989 and accelerated creep with significant hydromechanical forcing since about 2006. Because the active rockslide at Preonzo threatened a large industrial facility and important transport routes located directly at the toe of the slope, an early warning system was installed in 2010. The thresholds for prealarm, general public alarm, and evacuation were derived from crack meter and total station monitoring data covering a period of about 10 years, supplemented with information from past failure events with similar predisposition. These thresholds were successfully applied to evacuate the industrial facility and to close important roads a few days before the catastrophic slope failure of May 15, 2012. The rock slope failure occurred in two events, exposing a compound rupture plane dipping 42° and generating deposits in the midslope portion with a travel angle of 39°. Three hours after the second rockslide, the fresh deposits became reactivated in a devastating debris avalanche that reached the foot of the slope but did not destroy any infrastructure. The final run-out distance of this combined rock collapse-debris avalanche corresponded to the predictions made in the year 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrogeology of the deep-seated, slowly creeping Klasgarten rockslide in Austria is investigated in this study based on detailed surface and subsurface field data, laboratory analyses, and analytical and numerical simulations. Field data are derived from several deep exploration and monitoring boreholes, an exploration drift located within the rockslide, and geological and geomorphological mapping. Particular attention is given to the pore pressure measurements and their temporal and spatial variability. These pore pressure variations are controlled by a thin layer of clayey fault gouge (representing the basal shear zone of the rockslide), a high-permeability rockslide mass, and moderately fractured paragneissic bedrock. Variably saturated equivalent-continuum hydraulic conductivities and storage properties are derived from packer tests, laboratory tests and optical televiewer images. These data sets are used for two-dimensional numerical groundwater models to study the flow-field and pore-pressure variations caused by the reservoir water-level fluctuations, the transient groundwater infiltration from snowmelt and precipitation along the slope, and the exploration drift. The strongest pressure transients in the rockslide are caused by reservoir level fluctuations and not the natural groundwater recharge, even at substantial distances from the reservoir. The response times are very short and only a minor distance-dependent attenuation is observed. The results of this study are essential to analyse the hydromechanical control of the deformation behaviour of rockslides adjacent to hydropower reservoirs. Further, it helps to understand how the formation of a rockslide can change the original bedrock aquifer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89015-8, published online 06 May 2021 The original version of this Article contained an error in Table 1, where the formula given for the MCC score was incorrect. [Extracted from the article]

Within the framework of the Gotthard Base Tunnel Project in the Central Alps, Switzerland, geodetic monitoring networks were installed above the tunnel trajectory in alpine valleys. Natural ground-surface deformation recorded in the years prior to the tunneling excavation was seen to contain an unexpectedly large cyclical component of horizontal strain across the valleys, which was seasonal and appeared to be due to elastic processes. The strain is strongly correlated with snow melt and rainstorm precipitation, suggesting the implied rock-mass deformation is driven by changes in water-table elevation within adjacent mountain slopes. The horizontal strains are of the order of 1-2 · 10, which is close to the design limits that can be accommodated by hydropower arch dams in the study area. This study investigates these processes in detail and describes a new mathematical model (REROD), which is able to accurately reproduce and predict such natural rock-slope displacements. The model implements a transfer-function approach to predict the valley-crossing strains from rainfall and winter snow height data recorded at nearby meteorological stations. It has been used to estimate and remove the natural strain signal from the net recorded deformation so as to resolve the component due to tunneling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unlined Bedretto tunnel in the Central Swiss Alps has been used to investigate in detail the fault architecture and late Alpine brittle faulting processes in the Rotondo granite on macroscopic and microscopic scales. Brittle faults in the late Variscan Rotondo granite preferentially are situated within the extent of preexisting ductile shear zones. Only in relatively few cases the damage zone extends into or develops in the previously undeformed granite. Slickensides suggest a predominant (dextral) strike-slip movement along these steeply dipping and NE-SW-striking faults. Microstructures of these fault rocks illustrate a multi-stage retrograde deformation history from ductile to brittle conditions up to the cessation of fault activity. In addition these fabrics allow identifying cataclastic flow, fluid-assisted brecciation and chemical corrosive wear as important deformation mechanisms during this retrogressive deformation path. Based on the analysis of zeolite microfabrics (laumontite and stilbite; hydrated Ca-Al- and Na-Ca-Al-silicate, respectively) in fault breccias, cataclasites and open fractures we conclude, that the main phase of active brittle faulting started below 280°C and ceased ca. 14 Ma ago at temperatures slightly above 200°C. This corresponds to a depth of approx. 7 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflow data from 23 tunnels and galleries, 136 km in length and located in the Aar and Gotthard massifs of the Swiss Alps, have been analyzed with the objective (1) to understand the 3-dimensional spatial distribution of groundwater flow in crystalline basement rocks, (2) to assess the dependency of tunnel inflow rate on depth, tectonic overprint, and lithology, and (3) to derive the distribution of fracture transmissivity and effective hydraulic conductivity at the 100-m scale. Brittle tectonic overprint is shown to be the principal parameter regulating inflow rate and dominates over depth and lithology. The highest early time inflow rate is 1,300 l/s and has been reported from a shallow hydropower gallery intersecting a 200-m wide cataclastic fault zone. The derived lognormal transmissivity distribution is based on 1,361 tunnel intervals with a length of 100 m. Such interval transmissivities range between 10−9 and 10−1 m2/s within the first 200–400 m of depth and between 10−9 and 10−4 m2/s in the depth interval of 400–1,500 m below ground surface. Outside brittle fault zones, a trend of decreasing transmissivity/hydraulic conductivity with increasing depth is observed for some schistous and gneissic geological units, whereas no trend is identified for the granitic units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very intensive rainfall in August 2005 (>300 mm/3 days) triggered moderately deep (2–10 m) landslides of about 50'000 m3 volume each in two mountain torrent catchments above the village of Brienz (Berner Oberland, Switzerland). These landslides – originating in Trachtbach and Glyssibach catchments – transformed into extremely rapid (>5 m/s) debris flows, which caused significant damage in inhabited areas; two persons lost their lives and about twenty-five families became homeless. The Brienz case was the most damaging one among many landslide disasters occurring during those rainy days in the Swiss Alps. In this paper we study in detail the predisposition and causes of the 2005 landslides in the Brienz area, based on field mapping, analysis of high resolution images and digital terrain models, derived from LIDAR and infrared measurements taken before and after the event. The features of these landslides are compared with past and dormant landslides in the mid-slope portion of the mountain chain north of Brienz, which has been the source of many catastrophic mass wasting events during the last centuries. Detailed field mapping shows that highly weathered series of strongly overconsolidated Mesozoic marls (Diphyoides Limestone & Vitznau Marls of Valanginian age) and their residual soils form the primary source for the sliding materials. The rupture surfaces of the moderately deep landslides often run at the transition from saprolite to weathered bedrock, with a dip angle of about 40º in the landslide depletion area. These landslides transform into debris flows, where debris slides into strongly convergent hillslopes or directly into headwater channels. Weathering of the Valanginian Marls is very fast, leading to high frequency landsliding in areas where this formation is exposed or close to ground surface. As not all landslides transform into fast and long runout debris flows, colluvium from older landslides forms a second important material that becomes mobilized by heavy rainstorms. The depleted volume remaining today in the source areas of the Trachtbach and Glyssibach landslides amounts to about 30'000 m3 each. These soil masses will be mobilized in future rainstorms. Mitigation actions have been implemented to reduce their damage potential in the Brienz area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a detailed field investigation and hazard assessment for an unstable rock slope above an industrial site in the Riviera valley in the Canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. An integrated framework was used to counter issues of geological complexity and uncertainty, linking geological mapping and numerical modeling to develop an understanding of the acting instability mechanism to 2-D and 3-D dynamic runout simulations to predict the travel path and reach in the event of a large volume rockslide. The results from the numerical stability analysis provided a means to constrain failure volume estimates, whereas a series of calibration simulations were used to constrain the input parameters required by the rheological model used for the runout analysis. Results from this assessment suggest that current protection measures in place may not be sufficient, helping local authorities to define hazard zones and aid further development plans for the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bulletin of Engineering Geology & the Environment is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We performed an extensive analysis of C-band SAR datasets provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) satellites ERS-1/2, Envisat ASAR, and Sentinel-1 in the period 1992–2020 aiming at reconstructing the multi-decadal spatial and temporal evolution of the surface displacements at the Brienz/Brinzauls landslide complex, located in canton Graubünden (Switzerland). To this end, we analyzed about 1000 SAR images by applying differential interferometry (InSAR), multitemporal stacking, and persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) approaches. Moreover, we jointly considered digital image correlation (DIC) on high-resolution multi-temporal digital terrain models (DTM) generated from airborne surveys and InSAR results to compute 3-D surface deformation fields. The extensive network of GNSS stations across the Brienz landslide complex allowed us to extensively validate the deformation results obtained in our remote sensing analyses. Here, we illustrate the limitations occurring when relying on InSAR and/or PSI measurements for the analysis and interpretation of complex landslide scenarios, especially in cases of relevant spatial and temporal heterogeneities of the deformation field. The joint use of InSAR and DIC can deliver a better picture of the evolution of the deformation field, however, not for all displacement components. Since InSAR, PSI and DIC measurements are nowadays routinely used in the framework of local investigations, as well as in regional, national, and/or continental monitoring programs, our results are of major importance for users aiming at a comprehensive understanding of these datasets in landslide scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]