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Regional patterns of earthquake‐triggered landslides and their relation to ground motion
Author(s) -
Meunier Patrick,
Hovius Niels,
Haines A. John
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl031337
Subject(s) - landslide , seismology , geology , epicenter , peak ground acceleration , thrust fault , fault (geology) , seismic microzonation , strong ground motion , ground motion
We have documented patterns of landsliding associated with large earthquakes on three thrust faults: the Northridge earthquake in California, Chi‐Chi earthquake in Taiwan, and two earthquakes on the Ramu‐Markham fault bounding the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea. In each case, landslide densities are shown to be greatest in the area of strongest ground acceleration and to decay with distance from the epicenter. In California and Taiwan, the density of co‐seismic landslides is linearly and highly correlated with both the vertical and horizontal components of measured peak ground acceleration. Based on this observation, we derive an expression for the spatial variation of landslide density analogous with regional seismic attenuation laws. In its general form, this expression applies to our three examples, and we determine best fit values for individual cases. Our findings open a window on the construction of shake maps from geomorphic observations for earthquakes in non‐instrumented regions.