Search

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]

Abstract: Granitic rock mass of the upper Aar valley (Grimsel area, Switzerland) contains distinct generations of exfoliation joints, which formed during different stages of the Pleistocene, subparallel to distinct glacial valley palaeotopography. The bulk of exfoliation joints shows prominent, common fractographic features: (1) radial plumose structures with distinct plume axes; (2) arrest marks superimposed by plumose striations; and (3) gradually-developing en échelon fringe cracks. Multiple arrest marks reveal that exfoliation joints formed incrementally and, together with the absence of hackle fringes, suggest stable, i.e., subcritical fracturing conditions. Smooth transitions from plumose structures on the parent plane to en échelon fringe cracks, combined with non-systematic stepping senses of fringe cracks, suggest local (vs. temporal) stress field variations. Assuming that plume axes formed parallel to the maximum principal compressive stress (σ 1) enables us to infer near-surface palaeostress orientations and compare them with classical borehole-based in-situ stress data. The majority of plume axes suggest (1) persistently subhorizontal to slightly inclined σ 1 orientations at trough valley slopes and (2) near-surface variability of σ 1 orientations originating from topographic perturbation caused by glacial valley erosion superimposed on the regional stress field. Our investigations of fracture surface morphologies yield unique insights into exfoliation fracture formation, such as directional trends of fracture propagation and associated palaeostress orientations within Alpine valley slopes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Exfoliation joints are well-known natural fractures limited to near the ground surface. Relatively few details, however, are known about their distribution and age in the Swiss Alps. Exfoliation joints follow the landscape surface at the time of their formation; the age of the associated landscape feature then provides a maximum age of exfoliation joints. While landscape forms can change through time, exfoliation joints preserve elements of former landscape morphologies by their undisturbed orientations. The Grimsel region of the Central Alps is well-suited for analyzing the impact of erosional episodes, and accompanying stress changes, on exfoliation joint formation in granitic rocks. Mapping above and below ground revealed that exfoliation joints are widespread and occur between valley bottoms and mountain crests within glacial (inner and hanging U-shaped trough valleys, glacial cirques, and steep mountain crests) and predominantly fluvial landforms (gently inclined linear slopes above the inner trough valleys, narrow inner-valley gorges, and steep V-shaped side gullies). Based primarily on their geometric properties at the ground surface, three exfoliation joint types were distinguished in our study area: (1) closely spaced (<1m) joints oriented distinctly parallel to the present-day ground surface, (2) intermediately spaced (0.6–2m) joints that are nearly parallel (<10° difference) to today's mean ground surface at a 10-m scale, and (3) widely spaced (≫2m) joints not parallel to the ground surface. Relating the mapped distribution of exfoliation joint types to identified erosional episodes and landscape features of known and inferred ages, respectively, enables us to distinguish four exfoliation joint generations in the Grimsel area, which most likely formed during the lower Pleistocene (~1.5–1Ma), middle Pleistocene (~0.7–0.4Ma), upper Pleistocene (0.1–0.02Ma), and Late Glacial/Holocene (<0.02Ma). We demonstrate that the most prominent and deepest exfoliation joint generation is associated with erosion of the inner glacial troughs of the upper Aar valley, which likely occurred during the mid-Pleistocene Revolution. Our study shows how exfoliation joint episodes can be dated, and, conversely, that better knowledge of the distribution of exfoliation joint sets can reveal unique information about the morphological evolution of an Alpine valley. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Abstract: Surface subsidence associated with the construction of a headrace tunnel in the Swiss Alps at more than 2000m above sea level (a.s.l.) has been detected at two locations with satellite differential Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry. At the first location, a subsidence trough of about 4cm in the satellite line-of-sight direction following the headrace tunnel axes has been measured between August 1995 and August 1996. Similar values from SAR data of ascending and descending orbits indicate displacements in the vertical direction of the movement. In the second case, a symmetric cone of depression with a maximum displacement of about 4cm between 1995 and 1997 has been observed above the tunnel. Differences in the results from satellite SAR data of ascending and descending orbits indicate that the direction of displacement in this second case was not entirely vertical. Large-scale consolidation associated with pore-pressure reduction in the rock mass arising from tunnel drainage at about 200–400m depth beneath the topographical surface is believed to be the contributing mechanism (Zangerl et al., 2008a, 2008b). Evidence for this process is based on pore pressure recordings in nearby deep wells. In both areas, the subsidence was followed by a small uplift of about one centimeter between 1997 and 1999, after the tunnel was cased with permeable concrete segments. This partial recovery is also visible in pore pressure records and can be related to the elastic components of rock mass deformation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]