Investigation of Critical Geotechnical, Petrological and Mineralogical Parameters for Landslides in Deeply Weathered Dunite Rock (Medellín, Colombia)

Tamara Breuninger, Bettina Menschik, Agnes Demharter, Moritz Gamperl and Kurosch Thuro
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Tamara Breuninger: School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Bettina Menschik: School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Agnes Demharter: School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Moritz Gamperl: School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Kurosch Thuro: School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-26

Abstract: The current study site of the project Inform@Risk is located at a landslide prone area at the eastern slopes of the city of Medellín, Colombia, which are composed of the deeply weathered Medellín Dunite, an ultramafic Triassic rock. The dunite rock mass can be characterized by small-scale changes, which influence the landslide exposition to a major extent. Due to the main aim of the project, to establish a low-cost landslide early warning system (EWS) in this area, detailed field studies, drillings, laboratory and mineralogical tests were conducted. The results suggest that the dunite rock mass shows a high degree of serpentinization and is heavily weathered up to 50 m depth. The rock is permeated by pseudokarst, which was already found in other regions of this unit. Within the actual project, a hypothesis has for the first time been established, explaining the generation of the pseudokarst features caused by weathering and dissolution processes. These parameters result in a highly inhomogeneous rock mass and nearly no direct correlation of weathering with depth. In addition, the theory of a secondary, weathering serpentinization was established, explaining the solution weathering creating the pseudokarst structures. This contribution aims to emphasize the role of detailed geological data evaluation in the context of hazard analysis as an indispensable data basis for landslide early warning systems.

Keywords: dunite; landslide investigation; geological investigation; mineralogical predisposition; pseudokarst; secondary serpentinization; block-in-matrix structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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