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英国谢菲尔德大学副校长Dave Petley高度评价程谦恭团队高速远程滑坡研究成果

  作者:     日期:2019-01-14   点击数:  

国际滑坡领域著名科学家、英国谢菲尔德大学副校长Dave Petley教授,20181214日,在其“The Landslide Blog(滑坡博客)”中,以“The Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet”为题目,撰文高度评价程谦恭团队,近期关于青藏高原高速远程滑坡的研究成果,全文如下:


The Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet 

In a new paper in the journal Landslides, Wang et al. (2018) describe the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet.  I have not seen this spectacular rock avalanche in the literature before this paper; it is an excellent addition to the inventory of such events.  The dry, low vegetation environment of the Tibetan Plateau has meant that the rock avalanche is beautifully preserved in the landscape.  Whilst the paper itself is a little vague on the exact location, I have managed to track it down to 29.534, 90.263, a spot that has excellent Google Earth imagery:- 

     https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2018/12/18_12-Nyixoi-Chongco-1-e1544771430446.jpg 

Google Earth imagery of the the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet 

According to Wang et al. (2018), the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche involved a mass of 28 million cubic metres descending a vertical distance of 885 metres, and traveling a total of 4.6 km horizontally, representing exceptional mobility.  The landslide deposit is about 50 metres thick.  The authors do not give an estimated age for the rock avalanche, nor a definite trigger mechanism, but the proximity to active faults makes them suspect that an earthquake might have been involved.  Wang et al. (2018) note that a nearby fault is thought to have generated a magnitude 7.0 earthquake about 2,200 years BP; this would have induced sufficiently intense shaking to have triggered a rock avalanche of this type. 

The Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche can be better appreciated in this Google Earth oblique view:- 

    https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/files/2018/12/18_12-Nyixoi-Chongco-2-e1544772015867.jpg

Google Earth perspective view of the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet 

I have placed the marker at the crown of the landslide scar, which has a scoop morphology.  Below this is a very clear transportation zone, stripped by the passage of the landslide.  The deposit starts from the foot of the slope and extends down the valley.  Note the clear hummocks in the landslide mass, which are very common for large rock avalanches.  Wang et al. (2018) note that the landslide has many of the common characteristics of large rock avalanche masses, including a very coarse (i.e. boulder-rich) carapace (the surface layer), and a highly fragmented main landslide mass.  The base of the landslide mass shows almost no mixing with the valley deposits, and has sedimentary structures that suggest that these deposits were unsaturated when the landslide was deposited.  The authors suggest that the movement of the landslide was not associated with any of the complex mechanisms sometimes postulated for these huge rock avalanches, in this case involving simple shear between the landslide mass and the valley floor.

It is interesting to note that this means that the landslide could have high mobility without needing liquefaction or anything more exotic, a finding that is important in the context of understanding other large events.

 

Reference 

Wang, YF., Cheng, QG., Shi, AW. et al. 2018. Sedimentary deformation structures in the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche: implications on rock avalanche transport mechanisms.  Landslides https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-018-1117-7

Dave Petley教授认为:“在这篇论文之前,我还没有在文献中看到过这种壮观的岩崩,这对这些事件目录的一个极好的补充(I have not seen this spectacular rock avalanche in the literature before this paper; it is an excellent addition to the inventory of such events.)”;“值得注意的是,这意味着滑坡可以具有很高的流动性,而不需要液化或任何更奇异的东西,这一发现对于理解其他重大事件是很重要的(It is interesting to note that this means that the landslide could have high mobility without needing liquefaction or anything more exotic, a finding that is important in the context of understanding other large events.)”。 

Dave Petley撰写的“The Landslide Blog(滑坡博客)”,以评价和分析世界各地重大滑坡事件和著名研究成果而闻名,在全球“地球与空间科学领域(Voice of the Earth and Space Science Community)”享有盛名。


论文链接:Sedimentary deformation structures in the Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche: implications on rock avalanche transport mechanisms 

SpringerLink  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-018-1117-7 

博客链接:The Nyixoi Chongco rock avalanche in Tibet - The Landslide Blog - AGU Blogosphere 

https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2018/12/14/nyixoi-chongco-rock-avalanche/?utm_source=AGU+Blogosphere+-+The+Landslide+Blog&utm_campaign=a2230e250d-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_LANDSLIDE&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b2461e255e-a2230e250d-555512505