A new approach to estimating hazard posed by debris flows in the Westfjords of Iceland

Conway, Susan J.; Decaulne, Armelle; Balme, M. R.; Murray, John B.; Towner, M. C.

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.08.015

Cited by 53 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Large amounts of material can be moved in these debris flows, (Dundas et al, 2012, in press;Raack et al, in press), and total volumes have been estimated using orbital imagery and information from terrestrial analogues to be between 500 and 7000 m 3 per event (Conway et al, 2010). Assuming the rock portion of debris has a density of 2900 kg m À3 and that the debris flow has a low proportion of water, this gives an upper limit of 17.6 Â 10 6 kg total mass of rock and water.…”

Section: Mass Wastingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical modelling of the transport of trace gases including methane in the subsurface of Mars

Stevens

Patel

Lewis

2015

Icarus

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a b s t r a c tWe model the transport of gas through the martian subsurface in order to quantify the timescales of release of a trace gas with a source at depth using a Fickian model of diffusion through a putative martian regolith column. The model is then applied to the case of methane to determine if diffusive transport of gas can explain previous observations of methane in the martian atmosphere.We investigate which parameters in the model have the greatest effect on transport timescales and show that the calculated diffusivity is very sensitive to the pressure profile of the subsurface, but relatively insensitive to the temperature profile, though diffusive transport may be affected by other temperature dependent properties of the subsurface such as the local vapour pressure. Uncertainties in the structure and physical conditions of the martian subsurface also introduce uncertainties in the timescales calculated.It was found that methane may take several hundred thousand Mars-years to diffuse from a source at depth. Purely diffusive transport cannot explain transient release that varies on timescales of less than one martian year from sources such as serpentinization or methanogenic organisms at depths of more than 2 km. However, diffusion of gas released by the destabilisation of methane clathrate hydrates close to the surface, for example caused by transient mass wasting events or erosion, could produce a rapidly varying flux of methane into the atmosphere of more than 10 À3 kg m À2 s À1 over a duration of less than half a martian year, consistent with observations of martian methane variability. Seismic events, magmatic intrusions or impacts could also potentially produce similar patterns of release, but are far more complex to simulate.

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Section: Mass Wastingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical modelling of the transport of trace gases including methane in the subsurface of Mars

Stevens

Patel

Lewis

2015

Icarus

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“…It has high mobility [1,2] and is able to carry meter-size boulders [3]. Consequently, debris flows have greatly destructive potential and could pose a huge threat to human lives and properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Debris Flow Susceptibility Assessment in the Wudongde Dam Area, China Based on Rock Engineering System and Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Water

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Debris flows in the Wudongde dam area, China could pose a huge threat to the running of the power station. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out a susceptibility analysis for this area. This paper presents an application of the rock engineering system and fuzzy C-means algorithm (RES_FCM) for debris flow susceptibility assessment. The watershed of the Jinsha River close to the Wudongde dam site in southwest China was taken as the study area, where a total of 22 channelized debris flow gullies were mapped by field investigations. Eight environmental parameters were selected for debris flow susceptibility assessment, namely, lithology, watershed area, slope angle, stream density, length of the main stream, curvature of the main stream, distance from fault and vegetation cover ratio. The interactions among these parameters and their weightings were determined using the RES method. A debris flow susceptibility map was produced by dividing the gullies into three categories of debris flow susceptibility based on the susceptibility index (SI) using the FCM algorithm. The results show that the susceptibility levels for nine of the debris flow gullies are high, nine are moderate and four are low, respectively. The RES based K-means algorithm (RES_KM) was used for comparison. The results suggest that the RES_FCM method and the RES_KM method provide very close evaluation results for most of the debris flow gullies, which also agree well with field investigations. The prediction accuracy of the new method is 90.9%, larger than that obtained by the RES_KM method (86.4%). Therefore, the RES_FCM method performs better than the RES_KM method for assessing the susceptibility of debris flows.

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“…From the terrain parameters used for the prediction of the characteristics of debris flow run-out zones, the volume of removable sediment was the most important factor for establishing an applicable prediction model. Conway et al (2010) used iso-maps and associated field observations, to find a relationship between ground slope and patterns in deposition volume in the Westfjords of Iceland. They used their finding as a basis for an empirical model that enables to make an estimate of the total travel distance and final thickness of future debris flows.…”

Section: Methods Using Empirical Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

ASCHFLOW - A dynamic landslide run-out model for medium scale hazard analysis

Luna

Blahůt

Asch

et al. 2016

Geoenviron Disasters

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Background: Landslides hazard analyses entail a scale-dependent approach in order to mitigate accordingly the damages and other negative consequences at the respective scales of occurrence. Medium or large scale landslide run-out modelling for many possible landslide initiation areas has been a very difficult task in the past. This arises from the inability of the run-out models to compute the displacement with a large amount of individual initiation areas as it turns out to be computationally strenuous. Most of the existing physically based run-out models have difficulties in handling such situations. For this reason, empirical methods have been used as a practical mean to predict landslides mobility at a medium scale (1: 10,000 to 1: 50,000). They are the most widely used techniques to estimate the maximum run-out distance and affected zones not only locally but also regionally. In this context, a medium scale numerical model for flow-like mass movements in urban and mountainous areas was developed.

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A new approach to estimating hazard posed by debris flows in the Westfjords of Iceland

Cited by 53 publications

References 45 publications

Numerical modelling of the transport of trace gases including methane in the subsurface of Mars

Numerical modelling of the transport of trace gases including methane in the subsurface of Mars

Debris Flow Susceptibility Assessment in the Wudongde Dam Area, China Based on Rock Engineering System and Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm

ASCHFLOW - A dynamic landslide run-out model for medium scale hazard analysis

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