Susceptibility of typical marine geological disasters: an overview

Abstract

Background Marine geological disasters (i.e., catastrophic events occurring in marine environments) may seriously threaten the safety of engineering facilities, life, and property in shallow- and deep-sea areas. The development of marine resources and energy and the protection of the marine geo-environment are topics of intense interest globally, and these activities inevitably require the assessment of marine geological disasters, which are receiving increasing attention from academic and industrial communities. However, as a prospective analysis for the risk assessment and management of marine geological disasters, the susceptibility of marine geological disasters, referring to a qualitative or quantitative description of the type, volume (or area), and spatial distribution of existing or potential geological disasters, is still in the exploration stage. Results In this study, we systematically combine the theoretical basis and methods for the analysis of the susceptibility of marine geological disasters (i.e., heuristic approach, deterministic approach, and statistical approach). Taking two widely studied marine geological disasters (i.e., seabed liquefaction and submarine landslides) as examples, we review their triggering mechanism, condition factors, methodological advances, and susceptibility maps. Subsequently, some challenges in the susceptibility assessment of the marine geological disasters associated with seabed liquefaction and submarine landslides and extension to other types of marine geological disasters are briefly summarized and discussed, involving an incomplete evaluation system, poor applicability of methods, and insufficient databases. Conclusion Based on a literature review using the extensive literature database, we focused on the susceptibility of two typical marine geological disasters (i.e., seabed liquefaction and submarine landslides) and systematically summarized the development history, methods, results, problems, and future directions. According to the challenges of this field, we recommend that relevant organizations focus on the construction of a susceptibility system and study the triggering mechanisms of marine geological disasters. Long-term in situ observation efforts should also be supported to obtain more data to improve the disaster inventory. Ultimately, more reliable methods can help improve the credibility and usefulness of susceptibility analysis results.

Centrifuge Modelling of Composite Bucket Foundation Breakwater in Clay under Monotonic and Cyclic Loads

“…The length of the structure, force on the structure, frequency of cyclic load, and bending moment on the structure were modeled according to the geotechnical centrifuge scaling law, as illustrated in Table 1. The model breakwater in this study was made of aluminum alloy with an elastic modulus of 70 GPa and a density of 2.7 g/cm 3 . The model was designed according to the centrifuge scaling law at a scale of 1:105.…”

“…Breakwaters are important marine structures for protecting harbor facilities from severe storm wave loads. Caisson breakwater is one of the most widely used types of breakwater; however, it is often restricted in its application due to harsh conditions such as deep water and soft soil [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. To address this issue, most recently, composite bucket foundation breakwater has become a competitive alternative [9][10][11][12].…”

An undrained dynamic strain-pore pressure model for deep-water soft clays from the South China Sea

“…With the development and utilization of deep-sea resources, many engineering structures (e.g., the anchoring foundation of floating production platforms, submarine wellheads, and submarine pipelines) are fixed or laid to seabed soils (Guo et al, 2023a;Wang et al, 2024;Wu et al, 2024). The stability of these structures is closely related to the self-properties and responses of the seabed soils (Nian et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2023). The distribution of soft soils, which have physical and mechanical properties such as high water content, high thixotropy, low strength, and low permeability, is very common in deep-sea areas, according to survey and analysis results (Nian et al, 2018;Huang et al, 2021).…”

A Methodology for Susceptibility Assessment of Wave-Induced Seabed Liquefaction in Silt-Dominated Nearshore Environments

“…The statistical approach enables both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of geological disasters by employing statistical principles to describe relationships among conditioning factors [19]. Consequently, this method, including bivariate statistical analysis, multivariate statistical analysis, and machine learning (such as neural network models and maximum entropy models), finds extensive application in the susceptibility analysis of marine geological disasters [16]. However, the statistical approach primarily focuses on the probability of disasters and allocates less consideration to the mechanism of disasters [19].…”

“…It directly impacts the accuracy of risk assessment and requires the advancement of reliable theories and practical methodologies. Susceptibility assessment of wave-induced seabed liquefaction primarily involves the creation of a disaster inventory, selection of conditioning factors, and identification of assessment methods [16]. Because of the complexity of wave-induced seabed liquefaction mechanisms, the choice of different monitoring tools for liquefaction under different sediment conditions directly affects the establishment of the disaster inventory and the selection of condition factors, and ultimately determines the research methods [17].…”