A model for earthquake driven slope instabilities and morphilogic landscape evolution

In seismic regions the evolution of landscape is often dictated by the occurrence of earthquakes with each seismic event being responsible for the triggering of one or more landslides. In this paper, an analytical model to investigate the morphologic evolution of slopes subject to earthquake excitation is presented. The use of the model is twofold: on one hand to identify the magnitude of past earthquake events by back analysis of the shape and the extent of the landslide, and on the other to predict possible future failures. The well-known pseudo-static approach is employed in this study to account for the seismic excitation, the successive events and the cumulative damage through long time periods and by successive earthquakes. An example case is also provided for one of the most seismically active areas in the world (located south of Iquique in northern Chile), where the presence of large rockslide and avalanches occurred at different times is well documented.