Rockfall Intensity under Seismic and Aseismic Conditions: The Case of Lefkada Island, Greece

Aikaterini Servou (), Nikolaos Vagenas, Nikolaos Depountis, Zafeiria Roumelioti, Efthimios Sokos and Nikolaos Sabatakakis ()
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Aikaterini Servou: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Nikolaos Vagenas: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Nikolaos Depountis: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Zafeiria Roumelioti: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Efthimios Sokos: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece
Nikolaos Sabatakakis: Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: Rockfall analysis is a multiparametric procedure with many uncertainties and the outputs are largely dependent on some critical engineering geological parameters involved in the used simulation model. In this paper, three completely different limestone rock sequences, named Pantokratoras, Vigla, and Paxos limestones along the western coastal slopes of Lefkada island, in Greece, are examined regarding their rockfall susceptibility as expressed by produced kinetic energy, under aseismic and seismic conditions. A rockfall inventory was prepared through detailed field measurements after the extensive rockfalls which were caused by the strong earthquake of November 2015, while engineering geological surveys were systematically conducted on the limestone rock masses. Two case scenarios were adopted for the rockfall simulations: one without the horizontal initial velocity of the detached rock boulder and the other with an estimated value obtained from the peak ground velocity (PGV) of the main seismic shock. Two-dimensional rockfall simulations were performed in selected cross-sections for each rock mass, and spatial distribution maps of the intensity (kinetic energy) were generated. A comparison of the maps has shown a strong maximum variation in the intensity levels among the three rock masses mainly due to the differential size of the detached boulders because of the inherent engineering geological characteristics of the rock masses. The results show that the earthquake ground velocity generally leads to a fluctuating change in the intensity values due to the trajectory shape and increases the rockfall magnitude as the main triggering factor.

Keywords: rockfalls; susceptibility; kinetic energy; earthquake landslides; ground velocity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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