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Experimental study on the motion behavior and mechanism of submarine landslides

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Abstract

Submarine landslide is a common marine geo-hazard that shows different motion behavior with subaerial landslide. In this study, a test apparatus is developed to reproduce the extremely long distance movement of submarine landslides at different sliding velocities. The frontal behavior of subaqueous landslide under the dynamic pressure and shear stress of ambient water is described and analyzed. The evolution of the sediment concentration during the submarine landslide propagation is investigated. With an increase of the sliding velocity, the state of soil-water mixture can be divided into three stages: 1) landslide stage, the mixture consists a water layer and a sand layer; 2) transforming stage, a turbidity current layer appears above the sand-water interface, and the sand mass decreases gradually; 3) turbidity current stage, all of the sand particles are eroded by water and the sand layer disappears. In addition, the critical velocities between each stage are defined and investigated.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Japanese Scientific Research Grant (No. 20310109). Kuwada Y., Honda M., Sonoyama T. and Nakahara Y. took part in some early works.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane, 690-8504, Japan

    Fawu Wang, Zili Dai & Shuai Zhang

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  1. Fawu Wang
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  2. Zili Dai
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  3. Shuai Zhang
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Correspondence to Zili Dai.

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Wang, F., Dai, Z. & Zhang, S. Experimental study on the motion behavior and mechanism of submarine landslides. Bull Eng Geol Environ 77, 1117–1126 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1143-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1143-z

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