{"id":27702,"date":"2018-05-15T06:38:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T06:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=27702"},"modified":"2018-05-15T06:38:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T06:38:43","slug":"research-legacy-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2018\/05\/15\/research-legacy-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The research legacy of the Wenchuan Earthquake: a new review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Research legacy of the Wenchuan earthquake: the Old Town landslide in Beichuan<\/p><\/div>\n

The research legacy of the Wenchuan Earthquake: a new review<\/h4>\n

Ten years ago the most destructive seismic event in a generation, the Wenchuan Earthquake, struck the Longmenshan in Siichuan Province in China.\u00a0 I covered the event on this blog<\/a> – indeed on 12th May 2008, at 07:27 UT, 29 minutes after the Earthquake occurred, I wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cit is reasonable to assume that this earthquake will have triggered large numbers of landslides as this is a very landslide-prone area\u2026if the initial reports on this earthquake are correct then its impact could be fearsome.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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The research legacy of the Wenchuan earthquake: Tangjiashan<\/p><\/div>\n

I don’t think I had any idea of just how severe the landslide impact would be though.\u00a0 Ten years on, an international group of authors (Fan et al.<\/em> 2018<\/a>) have published a review of the research legacy of the Wenchuan Earthquake.\u00a0 They note that earthquake was the most efficient event in the last century for triggering landslides in terms of number and volume, and the area affected, including almost 200,000 individual events, over 800 of which blocked a river.\u00a0 The Daguangbao landslide is one of the largest earthquake induced landslides ever seen.\u00a0 The authors note that over 1,000 research articles have been written on the earthquake, a truly remarkable total.<\/p>\n

The research legacy covers a wide range of themes.\u00a0 Several attempts have been made to construct inventories of the landslides, with the number recorded varying between 11,300 and 197,500, depending upon the approach used.\u00a0 These inventories have been used to improve spatial models of landslide occurrence, although this remains somewhat challenging.\u00a0 Other key themes have included the mechanisms of landslide initiation (especially the role of topographic amplification) and the effects and behaviour of the multiple landslide dams.\u00a0 The Tangjiashan dam breach operation<\/a> remains the most remarkable operation of its type ever undertaken.<\/p>\n

Fan et al<\/em>.<\/em> (2018)<\/a> highlight the extensive work that has been undertaken on post–seismic landslide initiation, and on the associated hazards. In my view this is the most significant work that has been undertaken on the Wenchuan Earthquake.\u00a0 The 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake in Taiwan<\/a> had highlighted the importance of this problem.\u00a0 The Wenchuan Earthquake exemplified the hazards associated with the landslide legacy of a major earthquake, and some great work has been undertaken to understand these problems, from multiple perspectives.\u00a0 Interestingly, Fan et al<\/em>.<\/em> (2018)<\/a> note that:-<\/p>\n

Although the slope self-healing process (grain coarsening, consolidation, revegetation) does rebalance the rainfall threshold to that of a pre-earthquake level, the debris flow activity has not yet reached the pre-2008 background levels.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The research legacy of the Wenchuan earthquake: multiple landslides on the hanging walll<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, Fan et al<\/em>.<\/em> (2018)<\/a> note that the research legacy of the Wenchuan Earthquake highlights the need to undertake more research.\u00a0 Usefully, they note four areas of focus:<\/p>\n