Abstract |
Recent mapping in SW Utah frontier has revealed one of the largest landslides ever found, extending over 3,400 km2. Although this slide appears to be related uplift associated with volcanic activity in the region 21-22 million years ago, the low angle of slope at which the large mass movement was triggered is difficult to explain. The leading hypothesis is that it is related to low-friction on the slip surface, due to plate collision, which is in a weak, clay unit. For the purpose of this experiment, an analogue landslide model was created, consisting of a thin 1 inch sand layer on a slowly tilting board, with acetate representing the low-friction slip surface. Videos recorded, as the board is slowly tilting, allows us to determine timing, location, extent, and style of the slope failure to be analyzed as the extent and position of the low-friction layer on the slope is varied. Our results showed that low-friction layer increases the coherence of the resulting landslide, especially when it extend a long way up the tilting slope. Further experiments are required to understand the factors that best reproduce Markagunt gravity slide.
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Modified Abstract |
Recent mapping in SW Utah frontier has revealed one of the largest landslides ever found, extending over 3,400 km2. Although this slide appears to be related uplift associated with volcanic activity in the region 21-22 million years ago, the low angle of slope at which the large mass movement was triggered is difficult to explain. The leading hypothesis is that it is related to low-friction on the slip surface, due to plate collision, which is in a weak, clay unit. For the purpose of this experiment, an analogue landslide model was created, consisting of a thin 1 inch sand layer on a slowly tilting board, with acetate representing the low-friction slip surface. Further experiments are required to understand the factors that best reproduce Markagunt gravity slide.
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