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Landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan

Earthquake: temporal evolution of the
frequency-size distribution

Conference Paper · November 2017

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 Landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake: temporal evolution of
the frequency-size distribution
*Guillem Domènech1, Xuanmei Fan1, Lanxin Dai 1, and Qin Yang1
1
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology,
610059, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
*Corresponding author: guillem.domenech@qq.com

After a big earthquake, an intense mass wasting over large
areas is produced delivering up to several billions of cubic
metres of loose material that can lead to devastating mass
movements (co-seismic landslides). Many of these loose
deposits are stored in the hillslopes as source material for
landslide and debris flow reactivations (post-seismic
reactivations). During intense rainfalls, mostly in the wet
seasons, the hillslope material is transferred into the main
channels as debris flows and its long-term impact may affect
the population for several years. Nevertheless, this effect has
been seen to decrease over the time due to the decreasing of
channel sediments, self-slope stabilization and vegetation
recovery.
to the area of the instabilities, the shifting of the roll-over point
through larger areas, observed mostly during the mapping
carried out in 2013 and 2015, indicates a decreasing of the
number of small-sized landslides.
These preliminary results provide valuable insights about the
evolution of the landslides triggered during the 12 May 2008
Wenchuan earthquake. However, further studies for a better
understanding of the changes on the material delivered in areas
affected by earthquakes are required.

During the Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May 2008 in the

Sichuan Province (China), more than 60,000 landslides were
triggered over an area of 35,000 km2 (Huang and Fan 2013).
With the aim of analysing the evolution of the co-seismic and
post-seismic landslides in terms of number of reactivations and
size, the frequency-size distributions of the co-seismic and
post-seismic landslides for the periods 2008, 2011, 2013 and
2015 have been calculated. Such distributions are usually built
up from landslide inventories and they are typically
approximated to a power law relation. In many cases, a roll-
over effect is produced which usually related with
undersampling of low-size landslides (Stark and Hovius 2001).
However, some authors suggest that the roll over is given in
too many large occurrences to be considered as data biasing
and some physical reason must be responsible for.

In this study, a new extensive and detailed multi-temporal

inventory map of the co-seismic and post-earthquake
reactivations and new landslides has been carried out for 2008,
2011, 2013 and 2015. The site is located around Yingxiu and
Longchi towns and it extends over and area of 500 km2,
Fig. 1. Frequency size distribution of the co-seismic
characterized by rugged mountains with altitudes that range
landslides (2008) and the post-seismic reactivations (2011,
from 420 m to 4000 m asl and steep slope gradients up to 69 º.
2013 and 2015)
Results presented in Figure 1 show that, as expected, the
REFERENCES
highest number of landslides was given in 2008, during the
earthquake, when the co-seismic landslides where triggered. Huang R, Fan X (2013) The landslide story. Nat Geosci
Afterwards, between the period 2008 and 2011, the frequency 6:325–326. doi: 10.1038/ngeo1806
of the post-seismic landslides remained very similar. Stark CP, Hovius N (2001) The characterization of landslide
Nevertheless, during the following years 2013 and 2015, the size distributions. Geophys Res Lett 28:1091–1094.
number of instabilities was reduced considerably. With regard

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