Frictional velocity-weakening in landslides on Earth and on other planetary bodies

Antoine Lucas (), Anne Mangeney and Jean Paul Ampuero
Additional contact information
Antoine Lucas: Équipe de sismologie, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbone Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot
Anne Mangeney: Équipe de sismologie, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbone Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot
Jean Paul Ampuero: California Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract One of the ultimate goals in landslide hazard assessment is to predict maximum landslide extension and velocity. Despite much work, the physical processes governing energy dissipation during these natural granular flows remain uncertain. Field observations show that large landslides travel over unexpectedly long distances, suggesting low dissipation. Numerical simulations of landslides require a small friction coefficient to reproduce the extension of their deposits. Here, based on analytical and numerical solutions for granular flows constrained by remote-sensing observations, we develop a consistent method to estimate the effective friction coefficient of landslides. This method uses a constant basal friction coefficient that reproduces the first-order landslide properties. We show that friction decreases with increasing volume or, more fundamentally, with increasing sliding velocity. Inspired by frictional weakening mechanisms thought to operate during earthquakes, we propose an empirical velocity-weakening friction law under a unifying phenomenological framework applicable to small and large landslides observed on Earth and beyond.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4417 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4417

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4417

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().