Life and death of slow-moving landslides

Inferring the Subsurface Geometry and Strength of Slow‐Moving Landslides Using 3‐D Velocity Measurements From the NASA/JPL UAVSAR

“…Some landslides create clear and identifiable scars and deposits by evacuating material from the hillslope, making it possible to directly measure landslide properties from field data, digital elevation models (DEMs), and remote sensing observations (e.g., Bessette‐Kirton et al., 2018; Warrick et al., 2019; Wartman et al., 2016). However, for landslides that move slowly for years or centuries (Lacroix, Handwerger et al., 2020; Mackey et al., 2009; Rutter & Green, 2011), referred to as slow‐moving landslides, and do not create hillslope scars, it is difficult to constrain their thickness and volume because data are usually limited to isolated point measurements from boreholes (Schulz et al., 2018; Simoni et al., 2013; Travelletti & Malet, 2012), which do not capture the spatial variability exhibited by these landslides. It is therefore advantageous to develop and apply tools and methods that can be used to construct large inventories of slow‐moving landslides and quantify their surface and subsurface properties.…”

High-Resolution Soil-Moisture Maps Over Landslide Regions in Northern California Grassland Derived From SAR Backscattering Coefficients

“…Soil moisture time-series at the Two Towers landslide, northern California. Soil moisture at 19 cm depth is measured, and soil moisture at 5 cm depth is calculated using equation (7).…”

“…Persistently active slow-moving landslides provide an exceptional opportunity to investigate how soil moisture impacts landslides. Slow-moving landslides, which move millimeters to meters per year [7], are destabilized by precipitation and can be monitored for decades using both remote-sensing-and ground-based techniques [8][9][10][11]. Groundbased instruments, such as soil moisture sensors, piezometers, extensometers, and GPS provide nearly continuous measurements of landslide hydrologic conditions, kinematics, and stress at specific locations within a landslide [11][12][13].…”

Planform river channel perturbations resulting from active landsliding in the High Himalaya of Bhutan

“…Large (> 1 Mm 3 ) creeping landslides generate progressive topographic change over 1 kyr to 1 Myr at rates of ∼ 1 mm yr −1 (Hungr et al, 2014). Even though the probability of associated catastrophic failure is low (Hendron Jr and Patton, 1985;Intrieri et al, 2018;Lacroix et al, 2020), insufficient consideration of risks associated with rock mass degradation, ongoing creep, and parasitic failures can have serious consequences (Hendron Jr and Patton, 1985;Bonzanigo et al, 2007;Dorji, 2019). Sensitive (human) mountain infrastructure like hydro power dams are commonly constructed in narrow valley sections so as to reduce the amount of material required and to lessen the dam stability requirements.…”