Welcome to EARTHQUAKE,

EARTHQUAKE ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (1): 130-146.doi: 10.12196/j.issn.1000-3274.2025.01.009

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dynamic Processes of Landslides Revealed by Seismic Waveforms

JIANG Yong1,2, BAI Ling1,2, HUANG Xing-hui3, XIE Jun2,4   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System Science (LATPES), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    3. China Earthquake Networks Center, Beijing 100045, China;
    4. State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, China
  • Received:2024-03-02 Accepted:2024-05-21 Published:2024-12-06

Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas not only are characterized by intense seismic activity, but also experience various types of geological disasters, including landslides, ice avalanches, snow avalanches, debris flows, and glacial lake outburst floods. These disasters result from the rapid downward movement of debris such as rocks and glaciers, and are influenced by factors such as tectonic movements and environmental changes. From a seismological perspective, these geological hazards are considered to be the result of a unidirectional force acting on mountain slopes, with seismic waves providing crucial information about the source parameters and processes of these hazards. This paper systematically reviews the recent advances in the study of landslide-type geological hazards by compiling previous studies and summarizes the basic principles of using seismic waves to study landslide sources. The 2017 Maoxian landslide is selected as a case study, and seismic waveform records are subjected to time-frequency analysis, force-time function inversion, and other calculations. The analysis process is refined through the comparison of timelines and optimization of station data selection. The results indicate that the Maoxian landslide process includes three stages: pre-sliding initiation, main sliding, and post-sliding adjustment, with a total duration of approximately 123 seconds. The main sliding process comprises acceleration and deceleration phases, with a maximum velocity of about 54 m/s and a maximum horizontal displacement of about 2 km. Low-frequency signals are significant during the acceleration phase, while high-frequency signals are significantly enhanced during the deceleration sliding process, revealing the comprehensive impact of changes in slope gradient, debris composition, and sliding friction. With the continuous improvement of seismic observation and data processing technology, the ability of seismic waves to identify landslides is gradually enhanced, which helps to improve the monitoring capability of landslide-type geological hazards.

Key words: Landslides, Seismic waveforms, Sliding processes, Tibetan Plateau

CLC Number: