In steep mountainous regions, deep catastrophic landslides that involve weathered bedrock as well as soils can cause serious damage. However, there is currently no widely used method for estimating spatial patterns of susceptibility to deep catastrophic landslides. We propose a new method to estimate landslide susceptibilities for many small catchments (~1 km 2) over relatively large areas (hundreds of square kilometers). Our method identifies catchments prone to deep catastrophic landslides according to three criteria: (1) catchments with ancient deep catastrophic landslide scars, (2) catchments with faults and landforms caused by long-lasting mass movements, and (3) catchments with many steep slopes that have large upslope contributing areas. We demonstrated the applicability of this method using data from Mount Wanitsuka, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, where deep catastrophic landslides occurred during a typhoon in 2005.
In steep mountainous regions, landslides may include both soil and underlying weathered bedrock (hereafter, "deep catastrophic landslides"). The method for assessing susceptibility to deep catastrophic landslides, originally developed for landslides caused by heavy rain, was tested in this study against historical landslides caused by the Iwate and Miyagi inland earthquake of 2008. The method proved to be capable of independently identifying catchments in which deep catastrophic landslides occurred with fair accuracy.
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