The formation and evolution of a coastal alluvial fan in eastern Taiwan caused by rainfall-induced landslides     

Hsien-Ter Chou  Ching-Fang Lee  Chia-Ming Lo 《Landslides》2017,14(1):109-122

The formation and evolution of a coastal fan in eastern Taiwan associated with a sequence of rainfall-induced landslides during the 2009–2013 period are explored in this study. The evolution of these landslides is mainly attributed to the head-cutting process initiated by Typhoon Parma in October 2009. During the attack of Typhoon Megi in October, 2010, a subaerial coastal fan with a surface slope of 8.9° was formed after the mobilization of the rainfall-induced landslides. The geomorphic features both in the steep gully and on the coastal fan were categorized as the sequence of granular debris flows and sheet floods. Severe fan toe erosion occurred thereafter due to the wind-wave forcing. Even if the variations of both the cumulative rainfalls and the drainage areas are one or two orders of magnitude among devastating fan-forming landslides worldwide, the mean annual precipitation and the basin ruggedness index (Melton ratio) are effective indicators to normalize the rainfall threshold and to characterize the fan surface slope, respectively. Severe catastrophic landslides generally occur when the normalized cumulative rainfalls with respect to mean annual precipitation are greater than 0.1. The fan slope generally increases with the increasing Melton ratio for the catchment. Uchiogi’s empirical model is applicable for predicting the rainfall-induced area ratio of newly generated landslides. In this case study, the relationship of the fan area to the total landslide area follows a linear regressive curve when the ratio of landslide area with respect to the drainage area exceeds 0.0056.  相似文献   

Simulation analysis of the impacts of underground mining on permafrost in an opencast coal mine in the northern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau     

Wei Cao  Yu Sheng  Jichun Wu  Jing Li  Yaling Chou  Jinping Li 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2017,76(20):711

Based on two-dimensional heat-conduction equations with a phase-change component, this study investigates the impact of underground mining on the permafrost environment in an opencast coal mining pit. The dynamics of the maximum thawed and freezing depths at different depths around a borehole wall are determined. The spatial distributions of these dynamics are also determined at different locations of the wall profile. The results show that (1) the maximum freezing depth tends to increase over 100 years; (2) the maximum thawed depth increases along a borehole wall over 100 years. In particular, the maximum thawed depth increases faster near the junctions of permafrost and seasonally frozen soil; (3) due to the small cross section of mining laneways, coal mining does not cause rapid increases in permafrost temperature around borehole walls. Once disturbance to permafrost around a borehole wall decreases, the once-insignificant effect of temperature will become more obvious. Underground mining does have some impacts on permafrost surrounding borehole walls, but it does not cause large areas of deformation due to thermal disturbance.  相似文献