For a large unstable rock mass on the slope close to road, countermeasures such as fixing by steel wires, rock bonding method and removal after crushing small have been often carried out. A long ...period of traffic regulation by countermeasure treatment of mountainous road which connect local communities imposes a great deal of inconvenience to the local community. The target of this case is a large unstable rock mass sitting on the slope with the falling energy of about 8,000 kJ. The details of circumstances of rock removal by the national highway agency are described including the process of thinking for risk avoidance, preliminary survey, design, and the validation of field treatment. The knowledge obtained in this study will serve as a reference measures of risk management of road and rockfall mitigation in the future.
This paper closely analyzes the personal narrative of Earl E. Scott, Jr., a third generation low-wall coal miner from southwest Virginia, as a hero story. Low-wall mining, as Earl narrates it, is the ...descent into an unknown abyss, unearthing treasures brought back as boon to the above-ground world, retrieving from the underworld an energy source that, out of darkness, brings light to the world. Because I see Earl as the humble hero of his own story, I use Joseph Campbell's model of the hero's journey to illuminate his narrative.
In the framework of the new Slovenian methodology for determining hazard areas and the classification of land parcels into hazard classes due to land slides and rock falls, a pilot project was ...carried out on the regional road between Bovec and Vr{i~ pass in theTrenta valley. For this around 20 km long road in a typical alpine environment, a hazard assessment of falling rocks was carried out, even tough the road also passes through snow avalanches hazard areas. The performed hazard assessment of falling rocks is based onan expert knowledge taking into account the field mapping, and classifies the road into three hazard classes: 9811 m is classified into the low hazard class, 7233 m is classifiedinto the medium hazard class, and 1301 m is classified into high hazard class of falling rocks.
The Guadalupe Range (GR) is one of the several volcanic chains in the Mexico Basin and is located in its north-central portion. Four municipalities of the State of Mexico -Tlalnepantla, Tultitlan, ...Ecatepec, Coacalco- and one precinct in Mexico City -Delegation Gustavo A. Madero-surround the Guadalupe range. During the last decades the settlements in these areas have experienced substantial population growth. In the 1960´s, the communities had 744,905 people, and by 2000, the population was of 4 152,350 peoples. Nowadays, the population of these municipalities is growing towards the GR. However, the natural conditions of GR such as its geology, geomorphology and climate; along with human factors such as deforestation, changes of original slope, heavy-traffic transit and mining, have create the conditions for the occurrence of landslides that affect the population of these areas.
We identified and characterized 206 landslide sites in the Guadalupe Ranges. The mechanism most frequently found was toppling and rock fall, followed by, wedge, translational and rotational failure, debris flow, creep or a combination of these mechanisms. Slope failures were identified through erosive landforms, horseshoe head and flanks and tectonic features such as fault scarpments and fractures. From the identified landslides, and the natural and human conditions that motivate their occurrence, it is established that a landslides seriously threaten the communities of Tlalnepantla, Ecatepec, Coacalco, Tultitlan and Gustavo A. Madero. According with adverse geological and geomorphic condition on Guadalupe range it is necessary to propose a landslides inventory map, goal of this paper.
Numerous moderate to large earthquakes have occurred in eastern Canada. Some ofthese events had significant geological effects such as surface faulting, liquefaction,submarine slumping, rock ...avalanches, rock falls, landslides, railroad embankmentslides, and one tsunami. Some of these earthquakes caused considerable damage tobuildings with unreinforced masonry elements that were located on thick clay deposits. These events also had strong psychological and social impacts, mainly due to the unpreparedness of the population. To minimize these impacts, programs should be designed to map the land and offshore areas most susceptible to mass movements (Earth Sciences), to define buildings most at risk (Engineering) and to educate the public about mitigation actions (Education, science popularization).PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Sediment transport processes in the Kärkevagge are investigated concerning their spatial and temporal characteristics due to long-term monitoring. Within this study remote sensing techniques and GIS ...modelling in connection with geomorphic mapping are applied for identification and characterization of geomorphic process units. Relationships between geomorphometric parameters and slope processes like solifluction, talus creep and rockfall have been analysed. Multitemporal Landsat-TM5 scenes are used as source for landcover characteristics (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) after preprocessing involving orthorectification and topographic normalization in order to remove possible terrain-induced effects. Additionally, a digital elevation model with a resolution of 20 m for the Kärkevagge catchment is developed and parameters like slope gradient, slope aspect and profile curvature are extracted as input for the analysis of the sediment transport system. The combination of landcover information, geomorphometrical and topological features allows the definition of areas for single process activities. They show specific sediment displacement characteristics depending on material conditions, topological and geometrical features. Geomorphic process units, which show a homogenous composition, are extracted from these available layers.
The 1601 Common Era earthquake (Mw ca. 5.9) in "Unterwalden", Central Switzerland triggered multiple subaqueous mass movements and a subaerial rockfall that generated tsunami waves with devastating ...run-up heights of up to 4 m and several hundred meters of inundation along the coastal lowland plain of Lake Lucerne. In the shallow Lucerne Bay at the outlet of the perialpine lake, historical chronicles reported a seiche with an initial amplitude of ~1–2 m and a period of 10 min that decreased with time but persisted for several days after the event. The impact and erosion potential of the tsunami wave on the Lucerne Bay is assessed with sediment core analysis and numerical simulation of wave propagation. A 60 cm thick offshore event deposit was recovered and radiocarbon dated along a sediment-core transect. The event deposit has a sharp basal contact with carbonate shell fragments and a normal graded succession of siliciclastic sand to silt with high amount of terrestrial-derived horizontally bedded wooden particles. The simulated tsunami waves have a water-surface displacement of up to 1.5 m and bed shear-stresses that are likely capable of remobilizing large amounts of sediment in the Lucerne Bay area. Our study thus successfully links the sedimentology of event deposits with physical principles of sediment mobilization derived from numerical wave modeling, providing a tool to improve the identification and interpretation of potential tsunami deposits.
Urban areas in mountainous regions of the world normally face frequent rock slope failures that often disrupt traffic flow and that might also cause serious damages to lives and properties in the ...vicinity. This paper therefore intends to discuss rock slope stabilization practices in urban areas in Sultanate of Oman. Even though there are different rock slope stabilization methods, no single method appears to provide a solution to the existing rock slope stability problems alone. So, the strategy should be to select a combination of available methods even if that makes the overall approach costly and challenging as well. The selection of a combination of different rock slope stabilization methods in turn should be guided by sound rock slope stabilization planning. Moreover, professional expertise and technology at one's disposal appear to play a vital role in the rock slope stabilization endeavor.
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