Submarine landslides: Elements of analysis

Abstract

The stability of seafloor sediments constitutes an important consideration in planning and design of various offshore facilities. The stresses induced either by waves during a storm or by shaking during an earthquake may cause shear failure in ocean floor sediments leading to landslides. In this paper, the basic elements of analysis for submarine landslides are presented. The loadings associated with both wave action and earthquakes are treated as random processes and some of the soil parameters are also considered to be random variables. The analyses for different modes of seafloor instability are formulated in a stochastic framework, which provides the basis for the evaluation of risk of submarine landslides in a given offshore region. Numerical results of some example analyses are also presented.

Simulation of a Submarine Landslide Using the Coupled Material Point Method

“…Introducing formulas ( 8) and (10) into formula (7), the ultimate forms of momentum balance equation of liquid part can be expressed as…”

“…Both natural and human activities, such as earthquake, gas hydrates dissociation [3,4], and hydrocarbon production [5], are able to trigger submarine landslides. As opposed to terrestrial landslides, submarine landslides normally affect a wider range of areas [6,7], not only posing a great risk to submarine pipelines and other seafloor structures [8,9] but also causing severe casualties due to tsunamis. Compared with forecasting the occurrence probability of a marine landslide, estimating the postfailure behaviors and characteristics of a marine landslide is of equal importance [10,11].…”