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A methodology to derive precise landslide displacement time series from continuous GPS observations in tectonically active and cold regions: a case study in Alaska

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Abstract

Over the past 15 years, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been frequently used as a tool to detect potential earth mass movements and to track creeping landslides. In this study, we investigated 4 years of continuous GPS data (September 2006–July 2010) recorded at a landslide site in Alaska. This GPS station (AC55) was installed on an un-identified creeping site by the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) project, which was funded by the US National Science Foundation. The landslide moves with a steady horizontal velocity of 5.5 cm/year toward NEE 15° and experiences a steady subsidence of 2.6 cm/year. There is a considerable correlation between annual snow loading and melting cycles and seasonal variations in the landslide displacements. The seasonal movements vary year to year with an average peak-to-trough amplitude of 1.5 and 1.0 cm in vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. This study addresses three challenging issues in applying GPS for landslide monitoring in tectonically active and cold regions. The three challenges include (1) detecting GPS-derived positions that could be contaminated by the snow and ice accumulated on GPS antennas during cold seasons, (2) establishing a stable local reference frame and assessing its accuracy, and (3) excluding local seasonal ground motions from GPS-derived landslide displacement time series. The methods introduced in this study will be useful for GPS landslide monitoring in other tectonically active and/or cold regions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by an NSF CAREER award EAR-1229278, an NSF MRI award EAR-1242383, and an NSF TUES award DUE-1243582. The first author acknowledges Professor Kristine Larson for sharing her Fortran subroutines for extracting SNR data from RINEX files. This study benefited from public available continuous GPS data archived at UNAVCO. The authors appreciate UNAVCO engineers Mr. Chris Walls and Mr. Max Enders for providing photographs and site information of PBO GPS stations investigated in this study.

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  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA

    Guoquan Wang, Yanet Cuddus, Xueyi Jia & John Serna Jr.

  2. College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Yan Bao

  3. First Monitoring Center, China Earthquake Administration, Tianjin, 300180, China

    Qi Jing

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  1. Guoquan Wang
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  2. Yan Bao
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Correspondence to Guoquan Wang.

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Wang, G., Bao, Y., Cuddus, Y. et al. A methodology to derive precise landslide displacement time series from continuous GPS observations in tectonically active and cold regions: a case study in Alaska. Nat Hazards 77, 1939–1961 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1684-z

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