Publications
Filter Total Items: 884
Landslide modeling and forecasting—recent progress by the u.s. geological survey
Landslide studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are focused on two main objectives: scientific understanding and forecasting. The first objective is to gain better understanding of the physical processes involved in landslide initiation and movement. This objective is largely in support of the second objective, to develop predictive capabilities to answer the main hazard questions. Answers
Authors
Rex L. Baum, Jason W. Kean
Predicting locations of post-fire debris-flow erosionin the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California
Timely hazard assessments are needed to assess post-fire debris flows that may
impact communities located within and adjacent to recently burned areas. Implementing
existing models for debris-flow probability and magnitude can be time-consuming because
the geographic extent for applying the models is manually defined. In this study, a model is
presented for predicting locations of post-fire debris
Authors
Joseph E. Gartner, P.M Santi, Susan H. Cannon
Landslide mobility and hazards: implications of the 2014 Oso disaster
Landslides reflect landscape instability that evolves over meteorological and geological timescales, and they also pose threats to people, property, and the environment. The severity of these threats depends largely on landslide speed and travel distance, which are collectively described as landslide “mobility”. To investigate causes and effects of mobility, we focus on a disastrous landslide that
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George, Kate E. Allstadt, Mark E. Reid, Brian D. Collins, James W. Vallance, Steve P. Schilling, Jonathan W. Godt, Charles Cannon, Christopher S. Magirl, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, William Schulz, J. Brent Bower
Analyzing high resolution topography for advancing the understanding of mass and energy transfer through landscapes: A review
The study of mass and energy transfer across landscapes has recently evolved to comprehensive considerations acknowledging the role of biota and humans as geomorphic agents, as well as the importance of small-scale landscape features. A contributing and supporting factor to this evolution is the emergence over the last two decades of technologies able to acquire high resolution topography (HRT) (m
Authors
Paola Passaiacquaa, Patrick Belmont, Dennis M. Staley, Jeffery Simley, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Collin A. Bode, Christopher Crosby, Stephen DeLong, Nancy Glenn, Sara Kelly, Dimitri Lague, Harish Sangireddy, Keelin Schaffrath, David Tarboton, Thad Wasklewicz, Joseph Wheaton
Introduction: Hazard mapping
Twenty papers were accepted into the session on landslide hazard mapping for oral presentation. The papers presented susceptibility and hazard analysis based on approaches ranging from field-based assessments to statistically based models to assessments that combined hydromechanical and probabilistic components. Many of the studies have taken advantage of increasing availability of remotely sensed
Authors
Rex L. Baum, Toyohiko Miyagi, Saro Lee, Oleksandr M Trofymchuk
Coseismic landslides reveal near-surface rock strength in a high-relief tectonically active setting
We present quantitative estimates of near-surface rock strength relevant to landscape evolution and landslide hazard assessment for 15 geologic map units of the Longmen Shan, China. Strength estimates are derived from a novel method that inverts earthquake peak ground acceleration models and coseismic landslide inventories to obtain material proper- ties and landslide thickness. Aggregate rock str
Authors
Sean F. Gallen, Marin K. Clark, Jonathan W. Godt
Potential postwildfire debris-flow hazards: a prewildfire evaluation for the Sandia and Manzano Mountains and surrounding areas, central New Mexico
Wildfire can drastically increase the probability of debris flows, a potentially hazardous and destructive form of mass wasting, in landscapes that have otherwise been stable throughout recent history. Although there is no way to know the exact location, extent, and severity of wildfire, or the subsequent rainfall intensity and duration before it happens, probabilities of fire and debris-flow occu
Authors
Anne C. Tillery, Jessica R. Haas, Lara W. Miller, Joe H. Scott, Matthew P. Thompson
Quantitative rock-fall hazard and risk assessment for Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California
Rock falls are common in Yosemite Valley, California, posing substantial hazard and risk to the approximately four million annual visitors to Yosemite National Park. Rock falls in Yosemite Valley over the past few decades have damaged structures and caused injuries within developed regions located on or adjacent to talus slopes highlighting the need for additional investigations into rock-fall haz
Authors
Greg M. Stock, Nicolas Luco, Brian D. Collins, Edwin L. Harp, Paola Reichenbach, Kurt L. Frankel
Experimental test of theory for the stability of partially saturated vertical cut slopes
This paper extends Culmann's vertical-cut analysis to unsaturated soils. To test the extended theory, unsaturated sand was compacted to a uniform porosity and moisture content in a laboratory apparatus. A sliding door that extended the height of the free face of the slope was lowered until the vertical cut failed. Digital images of the slope cross section and upper surface were acquired concurrent
Authors
Michael M. Morse, N. Lu, Alexandra Wayllace, Jonathan W. Godt, W.A. Take
Variations in population vulnerability to tectonic and landslide-related tsunami hazards in Alaska
Effective tsunami risk reduction requires an understanding of how at-risk populations are specifically vulnerable to tsunami threats. Vulnerability assessments primarily have been based on single hazard zones, even though a coastal community may be threatened by multiple tsunami sources that vary locally in terms of inundation extents and wave arrival times. We use the Alaskan coastal communities
Authors
Nathan J. Wood, Jeff Peters
A depth-averaged debris-flow model that includes the effects of evolving dilatancy. I. Physical basis
To simulate debris-flow behaviour from initiation to deposition, we derive a depth-averaged, two-phase model that combines concepts of critical-state soil mechanics, grain-flow mechanics and fluid mechanics. The model's balance equations describe coupled evolution of the solid volume fraction, m, basal pore-fluid pressure, flow thickness and two components of flow velocity. Basal friction is evalu
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George
COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA
In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase fidelity of the spotlight mode. In this paper,
Authors
Pietro Milillo, Eric J. Fielding, William H. Schulz, Brent Delbridge, Roland Burgmann