Monsoonal control on a delayed response of sedimentation to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Zhang, Fei; Jin, Zhangdong; West, A. Joshua; An, Zhisheng; Hilton, Robert; Jin, Wang; Li, Gen; Densmore, Alexander L.; Yu, Jimin; Qiang, Xiaoke; Sun, Youbin; Li, Liangbo; Gou, Long‐Fei; Xu, Yang; Xu, Xinwen; Liu, Xingxing; Pan, Yanhui; You, Chen-Feng

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aav7110

Cited by 31 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Thus, the model shows that although mountain belt regolith cover appears thin almost all the time, at times it can be thick enough to severely affect the short-term exhumation rates of the mountain range. The Longmen Shan region is primarily classified as a bedrock landscape with little storage, but significant volumes of sediment remain in the mountain range after the earthquake, in a similar way to that simulated by the model (Fan et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2016). Variability in surface uplift through time (Fig.…”

Section: Coseismic Landslide Regolith Productionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…1c). Mapping of the landslide deposits reveals much of the landslide material produced by the earthquake remains on the hillslope and in small-order channels, and many deposits are undistributed by erosional processes (Fan et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2016). When looking at an orogen as a whole, landsliding only transports sediment a very small distance, and hence we define landsliding as a weathering rather than erosional process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Individual, large thrusting earthquakes can cause hundreds to thousands of years of exhumation in a geologically instantaneous moment through landslide generation. The bedrock landslides generated are important weathering agents through the conversion of bedrock into mobile regolith. Despite this, orogen-scale records of surface uplift and exhumation, whether sedimentary or geochemical, contain little to no evidence of individual large earthquakes. We examine how earthquakes and landslides influence exhumation and surface uplift rates with a zero-dimensional numerical model, supported by observations from the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. We also simulate the concentration of cosmogenic radionuclides within the model domain, so we can examine the timescales over which earthquake-driven changes in exhumation can be measured. Our model uses empirically constrained relationships between seismic energy release, weathering, and landsliding volumes to show that large earthquakes generate the most surface uplift, despite causing lowering of the bedrock surface. Our model suggests that when earthquakes are the dominant rock uplift process in an orogen, rapid surface uplift can occur when regolith, which limits bedrock weathering, is preserved on the mountain range. After a large earthquake, there is a lowering in concentrations of 10Be in regolith leaving the orogen, but the concentrations return to the long-term average within 103 years. The timescale of the seismically induced cosmogenic nuclide concentration signal is shorter than the averaging time of most thermochronometers (>103 years). However, our model suggests that the short-term stochastic feedbacks between weathering and exhumation produce measurable increases in cosmogenically measured exhumation rates which can be linked to earthquakes.

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Section: Coseismic Landslide Regolith Productionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

et al. 2020

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“…Differences in methodology may play a role as well; airborne and satellite images are well‐suited for distinguishing between vegetated and unvegetated areas, but not for determining the stability of the ground surface or the extent of landslide activity and downslope transport (Bernard et al., 2020). Indirect measures of landslide activity, such as downstream suspended‐sediment discharge (e.g., Dadson et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2015; F. Zhang et al., 2019), may reflect changes in sediment supply or transfer to rivers rather than changes in landslide activity. Comparison of such direct and indirect measures relies on a comprehensive understanding of sediment transport pathways and storage within the landscape which is often lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Coseismic and Post‐seismic Landsliding After the 2015 M_w 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal

et al. 2021

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Coseismic landslides represent a major cascading hazard associated with high-magnitude earthquakes in mountainous environments (Fan, Scaringi, Domènech, et al., 2019; Fan, Scaringi, Korup, et al., 2019). The widespread landsliding observed in many recent large continental earthquakes has led to substantially higher death tolls when compared to earthquakes without landslides (Budimir et al., 2014), disruption to infrastructure (Aydin et al., 2018; Bird & Bommer, 2004), and the mobilization and transport of large volumes of sediment (M. Y. F. Huang & Montgomery, 2012; Wang et al., 2015). Increased interest in understanding the spatial distribution, impacts, and timing of coseismic landslides in recent decades has resulted in the production of a growing number of coseismic landslide inventories (Tanyas et al., 2017). In contrast, despite growing evidence for the persistence of enhanced landslide rates and the consequent long-term impacts of coseismic hillslope damage in the years to decades after a major earthquake (e.g., Dadson et al., 2004; Hovius et al., 2011; Marc et al., 2015; Parker et al., 2015), our current understanding of the post-seismic evolution of landslides is limited. As a result, we remain incapable of anticipating the spatio-temporal evolution of landslide hazard after a large earthquake, which frustrates our ability to inform response, recovery, and reconstruction (e.g., Robinson et al., 2017; Williams et al., 2018), and limits understanding of the long-term role of earthquakes in the overall mountain sediment cascade. A standard approach to tracking post-seismic landsliding is to develop multi-temporal landslide inventories, usually by mapping from airborne or satellite imagery. This is a time-consuming and potentially expensive Abstract Coseismic landslides are a major hazard associated with large earthquakes in mountainous regions. Despite growing evidence for their widespread impacts and persistence, current understanding of the evolution of landsliding over time after large earthquakes, the hazard that these landslides pose, and their role in the mountain sediment cascade remains limited. To address this, we present the first systematic multi-temporal landslide inventory to span the full rupture area of a large continental earthquake across the pre-, co-and post-seismic periods. We focus on the 3.5 years after the 2015 M w 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal and show that throughout this period both the number and area of mapped landslides have remained higher than on the day of the earthquake itself. We document systematic upslope and northward shifts in the density of landsliding through time. Areas where landslides have persisted tend to cluster in space, but those areas that have returned to pre-earthquake conditions are more dispersed. While both pre-and coseismic landslide locations tend to persist within mapped postearthquake inventories, a wider population of newly activated but spatially dispersed landslides has developed after the earthquake. This is particularly important for post-earth...

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“…Differences in methodology may play a role as well; airborne and satellite images are well-suited for distinguishing between vegetated and unvegetated areas, but not for determining the stability of the ground surface or the extent of landslide activity and downslope transport (Bernard et al, 2020). Indirect measures of landslide activity, such as downstream suspended-sediment discharge (e.g., Dadson et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2015;F. Zhang et al, 2019), may reflect changes in sediment supply or transfer to rivers rather than changes in landslide activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of coseismic and post-seismic landsliding after the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

Kincey

Rosser

Robinson

et al. 2020

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Coseismic landslides represent a major cascading hazard associated with high-magnitude earthquakes in mountainous environments (Fan, Scaringi, Domènech, et al., 2019;Fan, Scaringi, Korup, et al., 2019). The widespread landsliding observed in many recent large continental earthquakes has led to substantially higher death tolls when compared to earthquakes without landslides (Budimir et al., 2014), disruption to infrastructure (Aydin et al., 2018;Bird & Bommer, 2004), and the mobilization and transport of large volumes of sediment (M. Y. F. Huang & Montgomery, 2012;Wang et al., 2015). Increased interest in understanding the spatial distribution, impacts, and timing of coseismic landslides in recent decades has resulted in the production of a growing number of coseismic landslide inventories (Tanyas et al., 2017). In contrast, despite growing evidence for the persistence of enhanced landslide rates and the consequent long-term impacts of coseismic hillslope damage in the years to decades after a major earthquake (e.g., Dadson et al., 2004;Hovius et al., 2011;Parker et al., 2015), our current understanding of the post-seismic evolution of landslides is limited. As a result, we remain incapable of anticipating the spatio-temporal evolution of landslide hazard after a large earthquake, which frustrates our ability to inform response, recovery, and reconstruction (e.g., Robinson et al., 2017;Williams et al., 2018), and limits understanding of the long-term role of earthquakes in the overall mountain sediment cascade.A standard approach to tracking post-seismic landsliding is to develop multi-temporal landslide inventories, usually by mapping from airborne or satellite imagery. This is a time-consuming and potentially expensive Abstract Coseismic landslides are a major hazard associated with large earthquakes in mountainous regions. Despite growing evidence for their widespread impacts and persistence, current understanding of the evolution of landsliding over time after large earthquakes, the hazard that these landslides pose, and their role in the mountain sediment cascade remains limited. To address this, we present the first systematic multi-temporal landslide inventory to span the full rupture area of a large continental earthquake across the pre-, co-and post-seismic periods. We focus on the 3.5 years after the 2015 M w 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal and show that throughout this period both the number and area of mapped landslides have remained higher than on the day of the earthquake itself. We document systematic upslope and northward shifts in the density of landsliding through time. Areas where landslides have persisted tend to cluster in space, but those areas that have returned to pre-earthquake conditions are more dispersed. While both pre-and coseismic landslide locations tend to persist within mapped postearthquake inventories, a wider population of newly activated but spatially dispersed landslides has developed after the earthquake. This is particularly important for post-earthquake recovery plans that ...

show abstract

Monsoonal control on a delayed response of sedimentation to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Cited by 31 publications

References 47 publications

The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

Evolution of Coseismic and Post‐seismic Landsliding After the 2015 M_w 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal

Evolution of coseismic and post-seismic landsliding after the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

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Monsoonal control on a delayed response of sedimentation to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Cited by 31 publications

References 47 publications

The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

The impact of earthquakes on orogen-scale exhumation

Evolution of Coseismic and Post‐seismic Landsliding After the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal

Evolution of coseismic and post-seismic landsliding after the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

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Evolution of Coseismic and Post‐seismic Landsliding After the 2015 M_w 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal