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Landslides in Peculiar Environments

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Introduction to the Physics of Landslides

Abstract

Several disasters have been caused by landslides and rock avalanches falling onto natural or artificial water basins. The most studied case occurred in northern Italy on October 9th, 1963, when a volume of \( 270 \times {10^6}\;{{\hbox{m}}^3} \) of limestone collapsed into the artificially dammed Vaiont lake. The dam survived the impact, but water overtopped the dam by about 200 m; the ensuing water wave took 2,000 lives. Many investigations have been devoted to the Vaiont failure, mostly related to the hydraulic and mechanical history prior to the landslide. Probably the disaster could have been avoided if the danger of landslides falling at high speed in water reservoirs and their capability of displacing the water had been recognized.

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  1. NHAZCA s.r.l., spin-off “Sapienza” University, Rome, Italy

    Fabio Vittorio De Blasio

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  1. Fabio Vittorio De Blasio
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De Blasio, F.V. (2011). Landslides in Peculiar Environments. In: Introduction to the Physics of Landslides. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1122-8_7

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