Mechanism of the Montescaglioso Landslide (Southern Italy) Inferred by Geological Survey and Remote Sensing

Abstract

Montescaglioso village is located in southern Italy (Matera, Basilicata region), on a hill top, at about 350 m a.s.l., along the left bank of the Bradano River. Several landslides involved this area, some of them classified as relict; the latest one occurred on December 3rd, 2013 on the south-western slope of Montescaglioso hill. A review of the geological setting of this slope is presented, aimed at defining the failure mechanism of the slope. Sub-pixel cross-correlation analysis based on SAR images was performed to infer the co-failure displacement pattern and A-DInSAR was carried out to detect the spatial-temporal deformational pattern before and after the failure. The field surveys confirmed the main role played by geological setting in structurally constraining the landslide mechanism and its complex kinematic, featured by three main distinct "kinematic blocks" with different direction of movement. The 3rd December landslide has been recognized as a partial reactivation along a slope affected by a long-lasting sequence of landslides, the last one triggered by a transient action.

Digital Image Correlation (DIC) Analysis of the 3 December 2013 Montescaglioso Landslide (Basilicata, Southern Italy): Results from a Multi-Dataset Investigation

“…The extensive and complex deformational pattern provides insights on the kinematic behavior of the landslide, and the geological and geomorphological constraints [23], and provides a valuable opportunity for testing the potential of the DIC technique by exploiting the different image datasets available.…”

“…along the left bank of the Bradano River. Based on the peculiar concave shape of the Montescaglioso relief, which illustrates an actively changing morphology, several types of ground evidence can be detected, such as inactive ancient landslide bodies, scarps and relicts, and blocks [23,38,39,[41][42][43]55].…”

“…The landslide involved an area spanning from 200 to 100 m a.s.l., and had a total length of approximately 1200 m and a width of approximately 800 m. The intense and persistent rainfall that affected southern Italy between 5 October and 8 October 2013, and between 30 November and 2 December 2013, has been considered the main trigger for the landslide event [23,38,39,41,43,55].…”

“…The extensive and complex deformational pattern provides insights on the kinematic behavior of the landslide, and the geological and geomorphological constraints [23], and provides a valuable opportunity for testing the potential of the DIC technique by exploiting the different image datasets available. In the frame of this work, a specific field survey aimed at better constraining the deformational pattern and mapping the main geomorphological features of the slope was performed in July 2016.…”

UAV and Airborne LiDAR Data for Interpreting Kinematic Evolution of Landslide Movements: The Case Study of the Montescaglioso Landslide (Southern Italy)

“…In particular, the whole Montescaglioso area is affected by widespread instability [44,45], mostly resulting from active distensive tectonics concentrated in the SW sector (the left side of the Bradano river valley), where very ancient landslides are located [46]. This morphology contributes to an anisotropy of the mass related to strength and permeability, which will be very relevant in the kinematics of landslides.…”