Identification of Landslide types in cliffs between Ancon and Anconcito, Santa Elena, Ecuador

Abstract

On the Ecuadorian coasts, landslides are frequent that occur on cliffs that correspond to an instability maintained by the mechanical characteristics of soils and rocks in which there are discontinuities, fault planes that are activated by precipitation or coastal erosion; for this reason, this research was focused on identifying the different types of landslides found in the coastal cliff areas of Ancón and Anconcito in the province of Santa Elena, this study was carried out by photogrammetric flights with UAV technology, carried out by three flights in the study area. It was found that the study sector corresponds to an inclined rocky coast, where mass landslides (soils) and rockslides were found, such as: rotational, earth flows, erosion gullies, falling blocks, sinkholes, planar breaks, and wedge breaks. The results identified in the studied areas highlight the importance of knowing how susceptible they are to different types of movements due to high coastal erosion due to wave incidence and other factors, on the other hand, research should be carried out to show how much the coastal retreat is (m/year) produced by landslides in these areas.