Groundwater processes in a complex landslide, northern Apennines, Italy

Ronchetti, Francesco; Borgatti, Lisa; Cervi, Federico; Gorgoni, C.; Piccinini, Leonardo; Vincenzi, Valentina; Corsini, Alessandro

doi:10.5194/nhess-9-895-2009

Cited by 41 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Due to the continuous pumping in WA, the unconfined aquifer hosted in the head zone was progressively renewed by the inflow of more fresh and less mineralised water from the upper landslide body. This presence was confirmed by Ronchetti et al (2009) after conductivity loggings in P1: the authors detected a rapid increase of GW EC with depth (stabilised at about 4000 µS cm −1 at 20 m below GW L ). The undisturbed flysch aquifer suffered by the hydrological changes of the head zone: in sampling points P1 and DrA, Cl − contents were halved.…”

Section: Origin Of Groundwater and Deep Water Inflowmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…For instance, deep water upflow along regional tectonic structures can affect groundwater balance on a slope scale (Tóth, 2009). The presence of deep water into landslide deposits was reported in several cases in the northern Apennines (Colombetti and Nicolodi, 1998;Bertolini and Gorgoni, 2001;Ciancabilla et al, 2004;Baraldi, 2008;Ronchetti et al, 2009) as well as in other mountain chains (Bonzanigo et al, 2001;de Montety et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Origin and assessment of deep groundwater inflow in the Ca' Lita landslide using hydrochemistry and in situ monitoring

Cervi

Ronchetti

Martinelli

et al. 2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Changes in soil water content, groundwater flow and a rise in pore water pressure are well-known causal or triggering factors for hillslope instability. Rainfall and snowmelt are generally assumed as the main sources of groundwater recharge. This assumption neglects the role of deep water inflow in highly tectonized areas, a factor that can influence long-term pore-pressure regimes and play a role on local slope instability.This paper aims to assess the origin of groundwater in the Ca' Lita landslide (northern Italian Apennines) and to qualify and quantify the aliquot attributable to deep water inflow. The research is essentially based on in situ monitoring and hydrochemical analyses. It involved 5 yr of continuous monitoring of groundwater levels, electrical conductivity and temperature and with groundwater sampling followed by determination of major ions (Na + , K + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Cl − , HCO Results show that the groundwater balance in the Ca' Lita landslide must take into account an inflow of deep and highly mineralised Na-SO 4 water (more than 9500 µS cm −1 ) with non-negligible amounts of Cl − (up to 800 mg l −1 ). The chemical and isotopic fingerprint of this water points to oilfield water hosted at large depths in the Apennine chain and that uprises through a regional fault line crossing the landslide area. It recharges the aquifer hosted in the bedrock underlying the sliding surface (at a rate of about 49 000-85 700 m 3 yr −1 ) and it also partly recharges the landslide body. In both the aquifers, the hydrochemical imprint of deep water mixed with rainfall and snowmelt water was observed. This indicates a probable influence of deep water inflow on the mobility of the Ca' Lita landslide, a finding that could be applicable to other large landslides occurring in highly tectonized areas in the northern Apennines or in other mountain chains. The paper demonstrates that hydrochemistry should, therefore, be considered as a valuable investigation method to define hydrogeological limits and the groundwater sources in hillslope and to assess groundwater flow patterns in deepseated landslides.

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Section: Origin Of Groundwater and Deep Water Inflowmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and assessment of deep groundwater inflow in the Ca' Lita landslide using hydrochemistry and in situ monitoring

Cervi

Ronchetti

Martinelli

et al. 2012

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…In the Alps or in the northern Apennines, most deepseated landslides occur in crystalline bedrocks (Barla and Chiriotti 1995;Agliardi et al 2001;Ronchetti et al 2009). The hydrological response of a fractured-rock slope depends on the geometry and hydraulic connectivity of the discontinuity network, on individual discontinuity properties, and on the intact rock properties (Maréchal 1998;Cappa et al 2004;Bogaard et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Consequently, recent studies focus on indirect methods such as hydrochemistry surveys by monitoring springs for natural and artificial tracers (Bogaard et al 2007). For example, recent studies have demonstrated that the recharge area of a landslide can be larger than the landslide itself (Guglielmi et al 2002) or that the landslide groundwater variations can be significantly controlled by deep groundwater flows (Ronchetti et al 2009). In addition, hydrochemical methods can discriminate waters which flowed through the stable rock masses from those which flowed through the unstable rock masses (Binet et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Contribution of time-related environmental tracing combined with tracer tests for characterization of a groundwater conceptual model: a case study at the Séchilienne landslide, western Alps (France)

et al. 2015

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Groundwater-level rise plays an important role in the activation or reactivation of deep-seated landslides and so hydromechanical studies require a good knowledge of groundwater flows. Anisotropic and heterogeneous media combined with landslide deformation make classical hydrogeological investigations difficult. Hydrogeological investigations have recently focused on indirect hydrochemistry methods. This study aims at determining the groundwater conceptual model of the Séchilienne landslide and its hosting massif in the western Alps (France). The hydrogeological investigation is streamlined by combining three approaches: a one-time multitracer test survey during high-flow periods, a seasonal monitoring of the water stable-isotope content and electrical conductivity, and a hydrochemical survey during low-flow periods. The complexity of the hydrogeological setting of the Séchilienne massif leads to development of an original method to estimate the elevations of the spring recharge areas, based on topographical analyses and water stableisotope contents of springs and precipitation. This study shows that the massif supporting the Séchilienne landslide is characterized by a dual-permeability behaviour typical of fractured-rock aquifers where conductive fractures play a major role in the drainage. There is a permeability contrast between the unstable zone and the intact rock mass supporting the landslide. This contrast leads to the definition of a shallow perched aquifer in the unstable zone and a deep aquifer in the intact massif hosting the landslide. The perched aquifer in the landslide is temporary, mainly discontinuous, and its extent and connectivity fluctuate according to the seasonal recharge.

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“…The landslide is a flysch rock slide, and is of a type quite common in northern Apennines. Previous studies(Berti et al, 2017;Ronchetti et al, 2009) indicated that, despite its complexity, the flysch behaves 7 Earth Surf. Dynam.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shallow landslides modeling using a particle finite element model with emphasis on landslide evolution

Wang

Zhang

Tinti

2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Numerical modelling is a powerful tool to study the mechanism of landslides and constructs the foundation of many physically-based assessment methods applied to natural hazards. Usually, numerical analyses of landslides are carried out on the failure mechanism and on the propagation process separately. With the advantage of dealing with large deformation problems, the particle finite element method (PFEM), that is the particle extension of the traditional FEM, has the capability of simulating the entire evolution of the landslide from the generation to the deposition phase. To figure out the difference between a unified PFEM simulation and the usually adopted approaches that separate failure mechanism (static analysis) and run-out analysis (dynamic analysis), we implement a PFEM code that is applied first to a simple homogeneous slope model. Numerical results reveal that under the so-called critical condition the landslide comes to a stop with a slight modification of the original profile, while its profile is drastically changed if strength reduction is further applied. To test the capability of our model, we choose the 2013 Cà Mengoni landslide, northern Apennines, Italy, as a case study, since it behaved as if it were formed by homogeneous material. In virtue of the back-analysis of the run-out distance that we perform by using different material strength parameters, we show that the PFEM model is able to capture the variation of the observed landslide profile, and contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of the whole sliding process.

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Groundwater processes in a complex landslide, northern Apennines, Italy

Cited by 41 publications

References 14 publications

Origin and assessment of deep groundwater inflow in the Ca' Lita landslide using hydrochemistry and in situ monitoring

Origin and assessment of deep groundwater inflow in the Ca' Lita landslide using hydrochemistry and in situ monitoring

Contribution of time-related environmental tracing combined with tracer tests for characterization of a groundwater conceptual model: a case study at the Séchilienne landslide, western Alps (France)

Shallow landslides modeling using a particle finite element model with emphasis on landslide evolution

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