Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a challenge. While often modeled based on limit equilibrium analysis, finite or discrete elements, continuum particle‐based approaches like the Material Point Method (MPM) have more recently been successful in modeling their full 3D elasto‐plastic behavior. In this paper, we develop a depth‐averaged Material Point Method (DAMPM) to efficiently simulate shallow landslides over complex topography based on both material properties and terrain characteristics. DAMPM is a rigorous mechanical framework which is an adaptation of MPM with classical shallow water assumptions, thus enabling large‐deformation elasto‐plastic modeling of landslides in a computationally efficient manner. The model is here demonstrated on the release of snow slab avalanches, a specific type of shallow landslides which release due to crack propagation within a weak layer buried below a cohesive slab. Here, the weak layer is considered as an external shear force acting at the base of an elastic‐brittle slab. We verify our model against previous analytical calculations and numerical simulations of the classical snow fracture experiment known as Propagation Saw Test (PST). Furthermore, large scale simulations are conducted to investigate cross‐slope crack propagation and the complex interplay between weak layer dynamic failure and slab fracture. In addition, these simulations allow us to evaluate and discuss the shape and size of avalanche release zones over different topographies. Given the low computational cost compared to 3D MPM, we expect our work to have important operational applications in hazard assessment, in particular for the evaluation of release areas, a crucial input for geophysical mass flow models. Our approach can be easily adapted to simulate both the initiation and dynamics of various shallow landslides, debris and lava flows, glacier creep and calving.

<p>Snow slab avalanches release due to crack propagation within a weak snow layer buried below a cohesive snow slab. In 1979, McClung [1] described this process assuming an interfacial and quasi-brittle shear failure for the weak layer. This model fails to explain observations of propagation on low angle terrain and remote avalanche triggering. To address this shortcoming, Heierli et al. [2] adapted in 2008 the anticrack concept developed for porous rocks to weak snow layers. In 2018, Gaume et al. [3] showed that mixed mode shear-compression failure and subsequent volumetric collapse (anticrack) of the weak layer were necessary ingredients to accurately model propagation mechanisms, thus reconciling apparently conflicting theories. More recently, large scale simulations based on the Material Point Method (MPM) and field observations revealed a transition from slow anticrack to fast supershear crack propagation [4]. This transition, which occurs after a few meters suggests that a pure shear model should be sufficient to estimate the release sizes of large avalanche release zones.</p><p>Motivated by this new understanding, we developed a depth-averaged MPM for the simulation of snow slab avalanches release. Here, the weak layer is treated as an external shear force acting at the base of the slab and is modeled as an elastic quasi-brittle material with residual friction. We first validate the model based on simulations of the so-called Propagation Saw Test (PST) and comparing numerical results to analytical solutions and 3D simulations. Second, we perform large scale simulations and analyse the shape and size of avalanche release zones. Finally we apply the model to a complex real topography. Due to the low computational cost compared to 3D MPM, we expect our work to have important operational applications for the evaluation of avalanche release sizes required as input in hazard mapping model chains. Finally, the model can be easily adapted to simulate both the initiation and dynamics of shallow landslides.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>[1] McClung, D.M. Shear fracture precipitated by strain softening as a mechanism of dry slab avalanche release. <em>Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth</em> (1979) <strong>84</strong> 3519--3526<br>[2] Heierli, J., Gumbsch, P. and Zaiser, M. Anticrack nucleation as triggering mechanism for snow slab avalanches. <em>Science</em> (2008) 321(5886):240-3<br>[3] Gaume, J., Gast, T. and Teran, J. and van Herwijnen, A and Jiang, C. Dynamic anticrack propagation in snow. <em>Nature Communications</em> (2018) <strong>9 </strong>3047<br>[4] Trottet, B., Simenhois, R., Bobillier, G., van Herwijnen, A., Jiang, C. and Gaume, J. Transition from sub-Rayleigh anticrack to supershear crack propagation in snow avalanches. (2021). doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-963978/v1<br><br></p>

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. While often modeled based on limit equilibrium analysis, finite or discrete elements, continuum particle-based approaches like the Material Point Method (MPM) have more recently been successful in modeling their full 3D elasto-plastic behavior. In this paper, we develop a depth-averaged Material Point Method (DAMPM) to efficiently simulate shallow landslides over complex topography based on both material properties and terrain characteristics. DAMPM is an adaptation of MPM with classical shallow water assumptions, thus enabling large-deformation elasto-plastic modeling of landslides in a computationally efficient manner. The model is here demonstrated on the release of snow slab avalanches, a specific type of shallow landslides which release due to crack propagation within a weak layer buried below a cohesive slab. Here, the weak layer is considered as an external shear force acting at the base of an elastic-brittle slab. We validate our model against previous analytical calculations and numerical simulations of the classical snow fracture experiment known as Propagation Saw Test (PST). Furthermore, large scale simulations are conducted to evaluate the shape and size of avalanche release zones over different topographies. Given the low computational cost compared to 3D MPM, we expect our work to have important operational applications in hazard assessment, in particular for the evaluation of release areas, a crucial input for geophysical mass flow models. Our approach can be easily adapted to simulate both the initiation and dynamics of various shallow landslides, debris and lava flows, glacier creep and calving.

No abstract