Influence of daily surface temperature fluctuations on rock slope stability: case study of the Rochers de Valabres slope (France)

Gunzburger, Yann; Merrien‐Soukatchoff, Véronique; Guglielmi, Yves

doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2004.11.003

Cited by 140 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Fredrich and Wong, 1986;Wai et al, 1982). In the case of already damaged or fractured material, it has been shown that daily thermal cycling can induce shearing along existing fractures (Gunzburger et al, 2005) even in absence of freeze-thaw cycles. The most favorable periods are the ones corresponding to high thermal gradient in time (dT=dt) and in space (dT=dz, z representing the depth).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of frost-cracking inferred from acoustic emissions in a high-alpine rock-wall

Amitrano

Gruber

Girard

2012

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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Ice formation within rock is known to be an important driver of near-surface frost weathering as well as of rock damage at the depth of several meters, which may play a crucial role for the slow preconditioning of rock fall in steep permafrost areas. This letter reports results from an experiment where acoustic emission monitoring was used to investigate rock damage in a high-alpine rock-wall induced by natural thermal cycling and freezing/thawing. The analysis of the large catalog of events obtained shows (i) robust power-law distributions in the time and energy domains, a footprint of rock micro-fracturing activity induced by stresses arising from thermal variations and associated freezing/ thawing of rock; (ii) an increase in AE activity under sub-zero rock-temperatures, suggesting the importance of freezing-induced stresses. AE activity further increases in locations of the rock-wall that are prone to receiving melt water. These results suggest that the framework of further modeling studies (theoretical and numerical) should include damage, elastic interaction and poro-mechanics in order to describe freezing-related stresses. Keywords: frost-cracking acoustic emission mechanical weathering scaling properties a b s t r a c t Ice formation within rock is known to be an important driver of near-surface frost weathering as well as of rock damage at the depth of several meters, which may play a crucial role for the slow preconditioning of rock fall in steep permafrost areas. This letter reports results from an experiment where acoustic emission monitoring was used to investigate rock damage in a high-alpine rock-wall induced by natural thermal cycling and freezing/thawing. The analysis of the large catalog of events obtained shows (i) robust power-law distributions in the time and energy domains, a footprint of rock micro-fracturing activity induced by stresses arising from thermal variations and associated freezing/ thawing of rock; (ii) an increase in AE activity under sub-zero rock-temperatures, suggesting the importance of freezing-induced stresses. AE activity further increases in locations of the rock-wall that are prone to receiving melt water. These results suggest that the framework of further modeling studies (theoretical and numerical) should include damage, elastic interaction and poro-mechanics in order to describe freezing-related stresses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of frost-cracking inferred from acoustic emissions in a high-alpine rock-wall

Amitrano

Gruber

Girard

2012

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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“…Gunzberger et al, 2005), microseismic cyclic 67 loading theoretically relies on an extremely high number of effective (damaging) load cycles 68 to exert any significant geomorphic consequence, since the damage increment resulting from 69 each loading cycle is likely to be exceedingly small, yet not cumulatively negligible ( resulting from, for example, time-dependent creep and fatigue processes driven by subcritical 209 crack growth (Rosser et al, 2007). In turn, this can cause stress redistribution and further 210 microcrack damage in a progressive failure process (Terzaghi, 1962;Bjerrum, 1967; 211 Eberhardt et al, 2004), causing the crack damage threshold, σ cd , to be exceeded, triggering a 212 transition from secondary to tertiary creep and, ultimately, rupture (Petley et al, 2005a, b).…”

Section: Introduction and Scope 37mentioning

confidence: 99%

Are microseismic ground displacements a significant geomorphic agent?

et al. 2014

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract 5 This paper considers the role that microseismic ground displacements may play in fracturing 6 rock via cyclic loading and subcritical crack growth. Using a coastal rock cliff as a case 7 study, we firstly undertake a literature review to define the spatial locations that may be prone 8 to microseismic damage. It is suggested that microseismic weakening of rock can only occur 9 in 'damage accumulation zones' of limited spatial extent. Stress concentrations resulting from 10 cliff height, slope angle and surface morphology may nucleate and propagate a sufficiently 11 dense population of microcracks that can then be exploited by microseismic cyclic loading. 12We subsequently examine a 32-day microseismic dataset obtained from a coastal cliff-top 13 location at Staithes, UK. The dataset demonstrates that microseismic ground displacements 14 display low peak amplitudes that are punctuated by periods of greater displacement during 15 storm conditions. Microseismic displacements generally display limited preferential 16 directivity, though we observe rarely occurring sustained ground motions with a cliff-normal 17 component during storm events. High magnitude displacements and infrequently experienced 18 ground motion directions may be more damaging than the more frequently occurring, 19 reduced magnitude displacements characteristic of periods of relative quiescence. As high 20 magnitude, low frequency events exceed and then increase the damage threshold, these 21 extremes may also render intervening, reduced magnitude microseismic displacements 22 ineffective in terms of damage accumulation as a result of crack tip blunting and the 23 2 generation of residual compressive stresses that close microcracks. We contend that damage 24 resulting from microseismic ground motion may be episodic, rather than being continuous 25 and in (quasi-)proportional and cumulative response to environmental forcing. A conceptual 26 model is proposed that describes when and where microseismic ground motions can operate 27 effectively. We hypothesise that there are significant spatial and temporal limitations on 28 effective microseismic damage accumulation, such that the net efficacy of microseismic 29 ground motions in preparing rock for fracture, and hence in enhancing erosion, may be 30 considerably lower than previously suggested in locations where high magnitude 31 displacements punctuate 'standard' displacement conditions. Determining and measuring the 32 exact effects of microseismic ground disp...

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“…These suggested mechanisms fail to describe time-dependent, thermally controlled sliding along discontinuities or opening of tensile fractures which may ultimately culminate in slope failure. Considering daily and seasonal temperature influences, several studies have evidenced extremely slow, creep-like, slope displacements due to cyclic temperature changes in long-term monitoring surveys (Vargas et al, 2013;Gisching et al, 2011;Mufundirwa et al, 2011;Gunzburger et al, 2005;Watson et al, 2004). Some of such studies were carried out for the preservation of cultural heritage sites around the world, for example in Slovakia (Vlcko et al, 2009), Japan (Greif et al, 2006) and Israel (Hatzor et al, 2002).…”

Section: Rationale On Causes Of Rock Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancedmonitoring Systems for Landslide Risk Reduction in The'siq' of Petra (Jordan)

Delmonaco

Brini²,

Cesaro

2017

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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ABSTRACT:The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra is characterized by a spectacular geo-archaeological landscape that lead to its inscription as World Heritage Site in 1985. Petra is also a fragile site facing a wide diversity of risks, ranging from those posed by environmental factors as well as those attributed to tourism. In recent years, hazardous natural phenomena were registered as increasingly impacting the site, and most specifically the 'Siq', a 1.2 km naturally formed gorge serving as the only tourist entrance to the archaeological park, posing a major threat to cultural heritage and visitors. These recent events have prompted UNESCO Amman Office, in cooperation with the national authorities, to develop a strategy towards prevention and mitigation of instability phenomena at the 'Siq' and, thus, further contribute to the management and conservation of the site through the implementation of the multi-year Italian funded "Siq Stability" project Actions have been primarily focusing on the analysis of the stability conditions of the 'Siq' slopes, the installation of an integrated monitoring system and the definition and implementation of mitigation measures against rock instability. This paper reports a detailed description of the integrated monitoring system installed paying particular attention on the wireless monitoring devices and the EASA applications, which proved to be some of the most successful systems implemented in the framework of the project. Some preliminary results regarding the data retrieved, policies applied and actions taken to ensure longterm sustainability and capacity development of the national authorities are also reported.

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Influence of daily surface temperature fluctuations on rock slope stability: case study of the Rochers de Valabres slope (France)

Cited by 140 publications

References 40 publications

Evidence of frost-cracking inferred from acoustic emissions in a high-alpine rock-wall

Evidence of frost-cracking inferred from acoustic emissions in a high-alpine rock-wall

Are microseismic ground displacements a significant geomorphic agent?

Advancedmonitoring Systems for Landslide Risk Reduction in The'siq' of Petra (Jordan)

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