Landslides and debris flow are the most prevailed events in western Iran. The largest one is Seimareh landslide occurred in prehistoric time as the largest in the eastern hemisphere.About 30 km 3 of material detached from the north flank of Kabirkuh anticline left a scarp of about 16km long and 5km wide. It seems that an earthquake that based on carbon-dating method occurred 10370±120 years BP must be the main triggering factor. The large angular bloke with the diameter of about 60m that has traveled on the low angle of slopes of the plain (<20°) to the distance of about 15km suggests a complex mechanism of motion in this landslide.
Justification of seismic triggering of large prehistoric rockslides that originated on the slopes of anticlinal ridges armoured by thick carbonate units has been performed by examples of the gigantic Seimareh rockslide in Zagros (Iran) and two structurally similar, though much smaller rockslides in Dagestan (Greater Caucasus, Russia). Such structural and geomorphic conditions allow precise reconstruction of the pre-slide topography of the studied sites that increases reliability of their back analysis significantly. Linear dimensions of landslides are much larger than thickness of the siding block that makes the simplified 2D numerical modelling of these slopes quite realistic. The pseudostatic analysis performed at the first step confirmed that the study slopes could not fail without strong earthquakes. However, further dynamic analysis performed by use of the Newmark method allowed estimating characteristics of strong motions that could result in formation of rockslides that had converted in long runout rock avalanches. Possible uncertainties and open problems are discussed as well.
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