biodegradation and mixing of crude oils in eocene es3 reservoirs of the liaohe basin northeastern china a suite of heavy oils from a single eocene sandstone reservoir section in the liaohe basin northeastern china was analyzed to study the geological controls on oil viscosity which spans a range of almost three orders of magnitude the heaviest oils are biodegraded as determined from the absence of n alkanes and the low relative amount of isoprenoid alkanes the large variation in viscosity can be explained by mixing to various extents of heavy biodegraded oils with less degraded oils this is supported by a simple mixing model which reproduces the observed data excellently the model may assist in predicting the viscosity of reservoired oils before production by analyzing reservoir core extracts prior to deciding which intervals to steamflood

complete dynamic modeling calibration for the thurwieser rock avalanche italian central alps abstract few rock avalanches have been witnessed and no exact real time description is available the 2 5 m m 3 punta thurwieser rock avalanche september 2004 italian central alps is a unique event for which many quantitative observations have been gathered this is the first case ever of a natural rock avalanche being recorded on video and for which an almost exact value of the total time duration from initial detachment to final deposition is available the landslide travelled over 2 9 km from its source partially in a glacial environment the initial failure and the time for the complete evacuation of the source area were studied and assessed by a series of photos the mean front velocities along the path have been estimated from the video the final geometry and the characteristics of the deposit have been obtained by gps measurements aerial photos field surveys and laboratory tests a quasi 3d continuum dynamic analysis of the landslide motion has been performed assuming both a voellmy and a frictional rheology in the model dan 3d for the first time the landslide front velocities have been used for back analyses and calibration of the rheological parameters together with the final shape and thickness of the deposit and its developing extension the dynamic flow resistance parameters initially calibrated with dan were adopted and validated in dan 3d showing good consistency they are consistent with the existing database for calibrated landslides of similar type and scale flow velocities on the path segment underlain by glacial deposits up to 55 65 m s 1 are more accurately predicted by adopting a frictional rheology up to 50 55 m s 1 with zero pore pressure and a 26 friction angle than by a voellmy rheology up to 40 45 m s 1 both observations and modelling show that glacial ice plays a substantial role in increasing the rock avalanche mobility

quaternary glaciation of the himalayan tibetan orogen glacial geological evidence from throughout the himalayan tibetan orogen is examined to determine the timing and extent of late quaternary glaciation in this region and its relation to similar changes on a global scale the evidence summarised here supports the existence of expanded ice caps and extensive valley glacier systems throughout the region during the late quaternary however it cannot yet be determined whether the timing of the extent of maximum glaciation was synchronous throughout the entire region or whether the response was more varied the lack of organic material needed for radiocarbon dating has hindered past progress in glacial reconstruction however application of optically stimulated luminescence and terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclide methods has recently expanded the number of chronologies throughout the region limits to the precision and accuracy available with these methods and more importantly geological uncertainty imposed by processes of moraine formation and alteration both conspire to limit the time resolution on which correlations can be made to milankovitch timescales several ka in order to put all studies on a common scale well dated sites have been re evaluated and all the published terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide ages for moraine boulders and glacially eroded surfaces in the himalayan tibetan orogen have been recalculated locally detailed studies indicate that there are considerable variations in the extent of glaciation from one region to the next during a glaciation glaciers throughout monsoon influenced tibet the himalaya and the transhimalaya are likely synchronous both with climate change resulting from oscillations in the south asian monsoon and with northern hemisphere cooling cycles in contrast glaciers in pamir in the far western regions of the himalayan tibet orogen advanced asynchronously relative to the other regions that are monsoon influenced regions and appear to be mainly in phase with the northern hemisphere cooling cycles broad patterns of local and regional variability based on equilibrium line altitudes have yet to be fully assessed but have the potential to help define changes in climatic gradients over time copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

immature condensate from southeastern mediterranean coastal plain israel a highly unsaturated sulfur rich naphthenic condensate was discovered in association with dry biogenic gas in the upper tertiary of the southeastern mediterranean coastal plain of israel geologic and geochemical evidence suggests that this condensate was generated in thermally immature rocks similar material has been reported from the upper tertiary of the western mediterranean we suggest that the immature condensates were formed from resin rich terrestrially derived organic matter under an equivalent thermal regime marine material derived primarily from algae and bacteria will produce heavy crude rich in asphaltenes

dynamic analysis and field investigation of a fluidized landslide in guanling guizhou china abstract on june 28 2010 a large catastrophic landslide was triggered by a heavy rainfall in guanling guizhou china this catastrophic event destroyed two villages and caused 99 casualties the landslide involved the failure of about 985 000 m 3 of sandstone from the source area the displaced materials traveled about 1300 m with a descent of about 400 m covering an area of 129 000 m 2 with the final volume being accumulated to be 1 840 000 m 3 approximately to provide information for hazard zonation of similar type of landslides in the same area we used a dynamic model dan3d to simulate the runout behavior of the displaced landslide materials and found that a combined frictional vollemy model could provide the best performance in simulating this landslide and the runout is precisely duplicated with a dynamic friction angle of 30 and a pore pressure ratio r u of 0 55 for the materials at the source area and with vollemy parameters of friction coefficient f 0 1 dimensionless and turbulent coefficient 400 m s 2 the simulated results indicated that the duration of the movement is estimated at about 60 s for a mean velocity 23 m s to examine the effectiveness of simulation by means of dan3d and also to evaluate the reactivation potential of these displaced landslide materials depositing on the valley we used electrical resistivity tomography ert method to survey the depth and internal structure of landslide deposits the ert results showed that dan3d gave a good prediction on the shape and runout distance of the landslide deposits although the predicted maximum depths of landslide deposit on some areas were differing from those obtained by ert method

spatial distribution of landslides triggered by the 2008 ms 8 0 wenchuan earthquake china abstract the ms 8 0 wenchuan earthquake of may 12 2008 is one of the most disastrous earthquakes in china the earthquake triggered tens of thousands of landslides over a broad area including shallow disrupted landslides rock falls deep seated landslides and rock avalanches some of which buried large sections of some towns and dammed the rivers the purpose of this study is to investigate correlations between the occurrence of landslides with geologic and geomorphologic conditions and seismic parameters over 56 000 earthquake triggered landslides with a total area of 811 km 2 are interpreted using aerial photographs and remote sensing images taken following the earthquake the spatial distribution of these landslides is analyzed statistically using both landslide point density lpd defined as the number of landslides per square kilometer and landslide area density lad the percentage of the area affected by landslides to determine how the occurrence of landslides correlates with distance from the epicenter distance from the major surface rupture seismic intensity and peak ground acceleration pga slope angle slope aspect elevation and lithology it is found that both lad and lpd have strong positive correlations with slope steepness distance from the major surface rupture and seismic intensity and that pre sinian schist and cambrian sandstone and siltstone intercalated with slate have the most concentrated landslide activities followed by the permian limestone intercalated with shale and devonian limestone statistical analyses also indicate that the major surface rupture has influence on the spatial distribution of landslides because lad and lpd are relatively higher on the hanging wall than on the footwall however the correlation between the occurrence of landslides with distance from the epicenter of the earthquake is complicated rather than a relatively simple negative correlation as found from other reported cases of earthquakes this is possibly due to complicated rupture processes of the earthquake

dynamics of the 1984 rock avalanche and associated distal debris flow on mount cayley british columbia canada implications for landslide hazard assessment on dissected volcanoes abstract in 1984 a mass of quaternary pyroclastic rock est vol 0 74 106m3 slid from the western flank of mount cayley volcano in southwest british columbia the disintegrating rock mass entrained a further 0 20 106 m3 and formed a rock avalanche that travelled a horizontal distance of 3 46 km from its source over a vertical elevation difference of 1 18 km equivalent to a fahrboschung of 19 from the superelevation of the debris trimline in the mid path it is estimated that velocities reached at least 42 m s in the upper part of its path velocities may have approached 70 m s the rock avalanche was partially transformed into a distal debris flow that travelled a further 2 6 km down turbid creek in a narrow channelised path to the squamish river temporarily blocking it the motion of the rock avalanche including the production of a distal debris flow was successfully simulated using a dynamic analytical model both the results of this analysis and field evidence indicate that the rock avalanche did not come to a halt in the upper part of its path as suggested by cruden and lu 1992 but travelled to its distal limit in one uninterrupted movement this finding has important implications for landslide hazard assessment at mount cayley and similar sites the landslide is typical of those which occur on the steep slopes of dissected volcanoes and is one of seven high velocity rock avalanches that have occurred in the garibaldi volcanic belt of southwest british columbia since 1855

simulation of a long runout rock avalanche triggered by the lushan earthquake in the tangjia valley tianquan sichuan china abstract only one long runout rock avalanche was triggered by the 2013 lushan earthquake in the tangjia valley tianquan sichuan china the rock avalanche involved the failure of 530 000 m3 of sandstone from the source area the displaced material travelled a horizontal distance of 1600 m with an elevation descent of 480 m equivalent to a fahrboschung of 16 7 based on a detailed field investigation we introduce basic characteristics of the rock avalanche and find that the rock avalanche resulted in one run up in the chunwojian valley a superelevation in the gangoutou valley and increase in volume due to the entrainment of path materials a numerical model dan3d was used to simulate the post failure behavior of the rock avalanche by means of trial and error a combination of the frictional model and voellmy model is found to provide the best performance in simulating this rock avalanche the simulation results reveal that of the rock avalanche lasted approximately 160 s and an average velocity of 10 m s

distribution pattern of earthquake induced landslides triggered by the 12 may 2008 wenchuan earthquake abstract this paper presents the preliminary results of an extensive study of the mapping the distribution of landslides triggered by the wenchuan earthquake in sichuan province china on 12 may 2008 an extensive landslide interpretation was carried out using a large set of optical high resolution satellite images e g aster alos cartosat 1 spot 5 and ikonos as well as air photos for both the pre and post earthquake situation landslide scarps were mapped as points using multi temporal visual image interpretation taking into account shape tone texture pattern elevation and ridge and valley orientation nearly 60 000 individual landslide scarps were mapped the landslide distribution map was compared with the inventory map that was prepared directly after the earthquake which contains about 11 000 individual landslide points through the calculation of normalized landslide isopleths maps remarkable differences were observed as the earlier inventory mapping did not consider the pre earthquake situation and did not consider all individual landslides as part of the landslide inventory landslides were identified that had blocked the drainage and had formed landslide dams the landslide distribution was compared with a number of aspects such as the seismic parameters distance to epicenter distance to fault rupture co seismic fault geometry and co seismic slip distribution and geology the most remarkable correlation found was with the co seismic slip distribution and the fault geometry landslide distribution in the section of the fault that had mainly a thrust component with low angle fault plane was found to be much higher than the sections that had steeper fault angles and a major strike slip component

quaternary glaciation of the tashkurgan valley southeast pamir the quaternary glacial history of tashkurgan valley in the transition between the pamir and karakoram in xinjiang province china was examined using remote sensing field mapping geomorphic analysis of landforms and sediments and 10be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating moraines were assigned to four glacial stages 1 the dabudaer glacial stage that dates to the penultimate glacial cycle and or earlier and may represent one or more glaciations 2 the tashkurgan glacial stage that dates to early last glacial most likely marine oxygen isotope stage mis 4 3 the hangdi glacial stage that dates to mis 2 possibly early mis 2 and 4 the kuzigun glacial stage that dates to the mis 2 possibly the global last glacial maximum and is younger than the hangdi glacial stage younger moraines and rock glaciers are present at the heads of tributary valleys but these were inaccessible because they are located close to politically sensitive borders with pakistan afghanistan and tajikistan glaciers during the dabudaer glacial stage advanced into the central part of the tashkurgan valley during the tashkurgan glacial stages glaciers advanced several kilometers beyond the mouths of the tributary valleys into the tashkurgan valley glaciers during the hangdi and kuzigun glacial stages advanced just beyond the mouths of the tributary valleys glaciation in this part of the himalayan tibetan orogen is likely strongly controlled by northern hemisphere climate oscillations although a monsoonal influence on glaciation cannot be ruled out entirely

quaternary glaciations and glacial landform evolution in the tailan river valley tianshan range china abstract the tailan river originates on the southern slope of tumur peak the largest center of modern glaciation in the tianshan range five moraine complexes and associated fluvioglacial deposits in this valley record a complex history of quaternary glacial cycles and landform evolution electron spin resonance esr dating of glacial sediments was carried out using germanium ge centers in quartz grains which are sensitive to both sunlight and grinding based on the dating results as well as geomorphic and stratigraphic data the piyazilike end moraines the second moraine complex were deposited during neoglaciation the largest glacial advances during the last 3 4 ka in western china and an early holocene glacial advance the third set of moraines was deposited in marine isotope stage mis 2 4 and the glacial landforms of the tailan glaciation the fourth moraine complex which include hummocky moraines on the piedmont were formed in mis 6 penultimate glaciation the end moraines of the innermost moraine complex the first moraine complex are inferred to have been deposited during the little ice age lia thus the landforms and dates indicate compound valley glaciers from the lia to mis 2 4 and piedmont glaciers during mis 6 the oldest tills studied belong to the kokdepsang glacial stage and occur on a high plateau based on similar glacial landforms glacial deposits on a high plateau and a high glacial terrace and their esr ages in adjacent valleys on the southern slope of tumur peak the kokdepsang glacial stage is assigned to mis 12

landslide generated tsunami and particle transport in mountain lakes and reservoirs gravitational mass flows may generate tsunamis as they hit water bodies such as oceans reservoirs or mountain lakes upon impact they can generate tremendous particle laden or debris flows and floods rapidly cascading waves down mountain slopes can trigger debris flows or floods potentially causing huge damage to civil structures and endangering life here we apply a general two phase mass flow model pudasaini 2012 and present three dimensional 3 d high resolution simulations for a real two phase debris impacting a fluid reservoir an innovative formulation provides an opportunity within a single framework to simulate simultaneously the sliding two phase debris landslide reservoir debris impact at reservoir water wave generation propagation and mixing and separation between solid and fluid phases the results demonstrate formation and propagation of very special solid and fluid structures in the reservoir propagation of submarine debris turbidity currents and complex interactions between the subaerial debris surface tsunami and submarine debris waves our results reveal that the submerge timescaling for a deformable two phase debris deviates substantially from the same for a non deformable solid these results substantially increase our understanding of 3 d complex multiphase systems flows this allows for the proper modeling of landslide debris induced mountain tsunami dynamics of turbidity currents and highly concentrated sediment transports in himalayan and alpine slopes and channels with associated applications to engineering environmental and hazard mitigation plans

a model for the analysis of rapid landslide motion across three dimensional terrain a new numerical model for the dynamic analysis of rapid flow slides debris flows and avalanches has been developed the model is an extension of an earlier algorithm and is implemented using a nu

extent and spatial distribution of pleistocene glaciations in eastern tibet as a contribution to the controversial discussion regarding the nature and extent of the pleistocene glaciation on the tibetan plateau additional observations and results were obtained during several chinese german joint expeditions in the investigation area of the eastern and central tibetan plateau it will be shown that the maximum extent of the last glaciation was limited to the glaciation of isolated mountain groups or smaller plateau glaciations these glaciations are characterized by glacial erosional features such as u shaped valleys in the inner mountain massifs and cirques in the higher summit areas accumulation forms such as terminal and lateral moraines less common than basal moraines are marked by granitic and basaltic erratics using two examples from the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau nianbaoyeze shan and northern chola shan the extent of pleistocene glaciations can be mapped by the distribution of terminal and lateral moraines and erratic granite boulders on the slopes of the surrounding schists two to three main pleistocene glaciations can be separated using weathering criteria paleosols and the overlying stratum on the moraines and associated terrace sequences overlying stratum consist of aeolian sandy silt or solifluction debris the younger moraines are found to be characterized by large erratics were therefore named big boulder moraine and can be found over the investigated area the ice free areas are characterized by pleistocene terraces along the main rivers loess deposits with sand and ice wedges at higher elevations e g the basin of zoige and paleosols in the basins below 3500 m a s l e g aba basin or garze basin the hypothesis of an extensive plateau glaciation could not be verified for this region a rising snowline equilibrium line altitudes elas is revealed in two cross sections during the last glacial maximum lgm at the eastern and northern margin of the tibetan plateau snowlines migrated from about 4000 m in the east minshan to 4300 m in the nianbaoyeze and to about 4700 m in the west bayan har shan a rise was also recorded from about 3800 m in the north central qilian shan up to a range of 4300 4950 m different exposures in the kunlun shan to approximately 5200 m in the tanggula shan in the center of the tibetan plateau the general increase of modern and lgm snowlines or elas towards the plateau corresponds with a decrease of precipitation from east to west and from north to south respectively precipitation was more pronounced at the eastern margin during glacial times than compared to present

the angle of reach as a mobility index for small and large landslides the relations between the angle of reach fahrboschung and other indexes expressing the mobility of landslides and vertical drop horizontal reach and volume of landslide mass have been analyzed by means of simplified plots and regression equations results for 204 landslides of all sizes show that whatever the mechanism of motion all kinds of landslides experience a continuous reduction of the angle of reach with volume increase this reduction starts from the smallest sizes scattering in this relation is mostly due to mechanisms of motion and to both obstacles and topographic constraints on the path this synthesis indicates that small landslides less than 0 5 106 m3 in relative terms display excesses of travel distance similar to large landslides since most small landslides are not expected to develop any change in the mechanism of progression while moving the decrease in the reach angle with volume suggests that scale effects should be taken into account the angle of reach is found to be

reconstruction of the 2 4 million km2 late pleistocene ice sheet on the tibetan plateau and its impact on the global climate during 20 expeditions new data were obtained on the maximum extent of glaciation in tibet and the surrounding mountains evidence was found of moraines at altitudes as low as 460 m on the southern flank of the himalayas and 2300 m on the northern slope of the tibetan plateau in the qilian shan on the northern slopes of the karakorum aghil and kuen lun moraines occurred as far down as 1900 m in southern tibet radiographic analyses of erratics document former ice thicknesses of at least 1200 m glacial polishing and knobs in the himalayas and karakorum are proof of glaciers as thick as 1200 2000 m on the basis of this evidence a 1100 1600 m lower equilibrium ela line was reconstructed for the ice age which would mean 2 2 4 million km2 of ice covering almost all of tibet since the equilibrium ela line was far below the average altitude of tibet on mount everest and k2 radiation was measured up to 6650 m yielding values of 1200 1300 w m2 because of the subtropical latitude and the high altitude solar radiation in tibet is 3 4 times greater than the energy intercepted between 60 and 70 n or s with an area of 2 2 4 million km2 and an albedo of 90 the tibetan ice sheet caused the same heat loss on the earth as a 6 9 6 million km2 sized ice sheet at 60 70 n because of its proximity to the present day equilibrium ela line tibet must have undergone large scale glaciation earlier than other areas being subject to intensive radiation the tibetan ice must have performed an amplifying function during the onset of the ice age

timing and style of late quaternary glaciation in northeastern tibet glacial successions in the anyemaqen and nianbaoyeze mountains of northeastern tibet are reassessed and new glacial chronologies are presented for these regions cosmogenic radionuclide and optically stimulated luminescence dating indicates that two glacial advances occurred in marine isotope stage mis 3 and mis 2 in the anyemaqen mountains a third advance occurred in the early holocene we suggest that glaciation was synchronous in the anyemaqen and nianbaoyeze mountains as well as in other glaciated areas of tibet and the himalaya that are influenced by the asian monsoon the maximum extent of glaciation occurred early in the last glacial cycle mis 3 during a time of increased insolation when the monsoon intensified and supplied abundant precipitation as snow at high altitude to feed high altitude glaciers this suggests that precipitation as snow is fundamental in controlling glaciation in these regions however the occurrence of glacial advances during the insolation minimum of mis 2 suggests that despite reduced precipitation at this time the annual temperatures were cold enough to maintain positive glacier mass balances the numerically defined chronologies for the anyemaqen and nianbaoyeze mountains presented here provide a framework for comparing glacial advances in other parts of high asia

on the problem of quaternary glaciations and the extent and patterns of pleistocene ice cover in the qinghai xizang tibet plateau abstract data accumulated during investigations since the 1960s indicate that up to four pleistocene glaciations can be recognized in the qinghai xizang tibet plateau and the adjacent himalaya mountains in order of decreasing age these are the xixabangma nyanyaxungla guxiang and baiyu glacial episodes the history of pleistocene glacial evolution in various areas throughout the plateau differs and the pattern is very complex throughout the early pleistocene the elevation of the qinghai xizang plateau was approximately 2000 m above sea level during the xixabangma glacial episode recorded at higher elevations the climate and topographical conditions on the plateau were largely unfavourable for the development of glaciers present investigations have revealed that the oldest till is only found at isolated localities on the plateau glaciofluvial or alluvial deposits such as the gongba conglomerate dating from 2 4 to 0 73 ma bp and the fluvial lacustrine deposits of the qiantang group dating from 2 4 to 1 7 ma bp are present rather than glacial till therefore the postulate of a large early pleistocene ice sheet proposed previously has been disproves during the most recent glaciation uplift of the plateau and the himalayas continued the majority of the qinghai xizang plateau reached 4000 m a s l and the great himalaya were approximately 6000 m a s l the mountains formed a barrier against the incursion of the indian monsoon so that precipitation decreased sharply on the northern flank of the himalayas and the climate to the north became cold and dry all of the glaciers on the qinghai xizang plateau underwent extensive retreat thus during the pleistocene no unified glacial cover existed over the qinghai xizang plateau similarly the source area of the hwang he yellow river did not support a local ice sheet

formation of immature asphalt from organic rich carbonate rocks i geochemical correlation abstract the formation of low maturity asphaltic oils immature asphalts from carbonate source rocks was investigated the senonian bituminous rocks sbr in israel are organic rich carbonate rocks that were deposited in a high productivity environment and they are part of a sedimentary sequence that also contains cherts and phosphorites the sbr were studied in different basins and the samples are from outcrops and three deep drillholes the bitumen contents of the rocks are exceptionally high up to 700 mg g c org and immature asphalts are found to be associated with them geochemical analysis indicates that the bitumens are indigenous to the host sbr and the associated asphalts are bitumens that have migrated a short distance with negligible chemical fractionation the high heteroatom content of the kerogens up to 30 in the sbr is suggested as a possible cause of the generation of asphaltic oils in an early stage of maturation

sulfides in petroleum abstract the homologous series of terpenoid sulfides previously reported to be present in athabasca bitumen have been detected in a variety of petroleums from the western hemisphere all 22 samples examined ranging in age from devonoan to cretaceous contained the terpenoid sulfides a method is described for the isolation of sulfides from petroleums based on the selective oxidation of sulfides to more polar sulfoxides which are easily removed from the mixture and their subsequent reduction to sulfides the sulfide content in the petroleum maltenes examined ranged from 0 3 to 16 1 w w in addition to the bicyclic and tetracyclic terpenoid sulfides a new series of tricyclic terpenoid sulfides has been identified and the details of the isoprenoid side chain have been elucidated for all three homologous series the distributions by carbon number of the bicyclic and tetracyclic homologous series of terpenoid sulfides show pronounced variations which are attributed to thermal maturity and degree of water washing of the petroleum thus the ability to identify terpenoid sulfides should provide a useful tool for oil oil and oil source rock correlation studies the bicyclic and tricyclic terpenoid sulfides have the same carbon framework as the carotenoids which suggest that these sulfides were accessory pigments in photosynthesis

far flung moraines exploring the feedback of glacial erosion on the evolution of glacier length abstract over many glacial cycles the glacial erosion of alpine valleys can be sufficient to reduce the length of glaciers in the most recent cycles we document field cases illustrative of this erosional feedback and model the long term evolution of glacier lengths analytically and numerically the general feature we target is a moraine deposited well beyond the last glacial maximum lgm limit which we refer to as a far flung moraine firstly we assemble published observations to illustrate that far flung moraines are documented around the world the observations suggest that the downvalley distance to such far flung moraines can exceed the distance to lgm moraines by up to twofold secondly we address the problem analytically making several simplifying assumptions to demonstrate that glacier length scales linearly with erosion depth finally we employ a numerical model to test the analytical solution this 1d depth integrated flowline model includes i a depth averaged longitudinal coupling stress approximation ii prescribed winter and summer surface mass balance profiles iii evolving ice temperature calculated via the conventional heat equation and iv glacier sliding velocity parameterized as a function of basal ice temperature and spatially and temporally variable prescribed flotation fraction the simulated alpine landscape is modified through the competing processes of glacier erosion which is dependent on glacier sliding velocity and prescribed bedrock erodibility and prescribed uplift rate the climate controlling surface mass balance is prescribed by time series of air temperature and snowfall approximated by the sum of two sinusoidal cycles the recurrence statistics of these prescribed climate drivers closely match those of the marine isotopic record hence the prescribed climate drivers faithfully mimic observed long term climate drivers consistent with earlier landscape evolution studies we find that the primary effect of repeated glaciations is to flatten a valley floor and steepen its headwall effectively cutting a longitudinal notch in a fluvial valley profile analytical and numerical model results also demonstrate that far flung moraines are an inevitable consequence of repeated glaciations glaciers in tectonically inactive regions can sufficiently erode their valleys so that the earliest glaciations leave moraines many kilometers down valley from moraines left by the latest glaciations despite similar climates this suggests that a different landscape rather than a different climate is capable of explaining the early glacier extents as a corollary the long term drift toward reduced glacier length favors the survival of early moraines in the face of later glacial advances finally rock uplift can defeat this erosional feedback while rock subsidence enhances the feedback

quaternary glacial chronology of the kanas river valley altai mountains china the kanas river originates on the southern slope of youyi peak the largest center of modern glaciation in the altai mountains in central asia glaciers advanced and retreated repeatedly during quaternary glacialeinterglacial cycles in the kanas river valley and four moraine complexes and associated glaciofluvial deposits are preserved in the valley optically stimulated luminescence osl dating has been used to determine ages of glaciofluvial deposits sand lenses sandwiched between tills in moraines using a single aliquot regenerative dose sar protocol based on dating results from this and previous studies including 14 c electron spin resonance esr and osl dates and geomorphic relationships the innermost moraine complex was concluded to deposit during the little ice age lia the second akekule moraine complex was deposited during the neoglacial the third kanas moraine complex was deposited during the last glacial cycle marine oxygen isotope stage mis 2e4 and the outermost set of moraines is mis 6 in ages penultimate glaciation the kanas moraine complex could be divided into three subsets iii1 iii2 and iii3 with inferred ages of mis 2 mid mis 3 and mis 4 respectively which is consistent with moraine records from other areas in central asia and climate reconstructions from the guliya ice core the glaciers in the kanas valley at their maximum extents during the lia neoglacial last glaciation and penultimate glaciation were 13 8 km 32 km w100 km and w120 km long respectively

database and spatial distribution of landslides triggered by the lushan china mw 6 6 earthquake of 20 april 2013 abstract on 20 april 2013 an earthquake with mw 6 6 ms 7 0 hit lushan county sichuan province of china 30 3 n 103 e only 85 km southwest of the 2008 wenchuan mw 7 9 event the lushan shock triggered a large number of landslides with various types including highly disrupted shallow slides and rock falls deep seated landslides and large scale rock avalanches post earthquake high resolution aerial photographs and satellite images as well as a series of pre earthquake high resolution satellite images were collected to construct a detailed accurate objective and complete coseismic landslide database inventory which was validated by field investigation in selected areas based on the aerial photographs 0 2 or 0 6 m resolution that partly cover the affected area and pre earthquake satellite images 14 580 coseismic landslides were recognized and mapped in those areas without post earthquake aerial photographs coverage we mapped 7 948 more coseismic landslides based on post earthquake satellite images rapideye images with 5 m resolution and zy 3 images including panchromatic images with 2 1 m resolution and multi spectral images with 5 8 m resolution and pre earthquake satellite images the 22 528 coseismic landslides with a horizontal projection area of 18 88 km 2 and an estimated total volume of 41 56 10 6 m 3 were distributed in a nearly elliptic area of about 5 400 km 2 correlations between coseismic landslide abundances and topographic geologic and seismic factors were analyzed on 15 546 landslides of area 100 m 2 scatter plots between regional slope angle and landslide abundances in generalized homogeneous lithology combinations show no obvious relationship is present between them which challenges the conclusions of previous studies combining the lushan earthquake triggered landslides with other events on reverse and or thrust faults such as the 1999 chi chi and 2008 wenchuan shocks we found that coseismic landslides tend to occur in areas enveloped by two or more imbricated reverse and or thrust faults rather than only along the seismogenic fault the lushan event shows a higher ability of triggering landslides compared with other earthquakes of similar magnitudes which is likely due to the steep and rugged topography and fractured and densely jointed lithology resulted from long term tectonic activity the blind reverse seismogenic fault is likely also another significant factor based on detailed coseismic landslide inventory maps and databases of several recent major earthquakes such as the 2008 wenchuan 2010 haiti 2010 yushu and 2013 lushan temblors we suggest that the empirical correlations between earthquake magnitude and coseismic landslides need to be updated

dynamic modelling of entrainment in rapid landslides entrainment of path material is an important feature of many rapid landslides the associated increases in volume and changes in flow character can significantly influence mobility a simple material entrainment algorithm based on the assumption of natural exponential growth with displacement has been incorporated into a new computer model designed to simulate rapid landslide motion across 3d terrain the user controls the growth rate and can also implement a change in rheology at the onset of entrainment a hypothetical example is used to demonstrate the influence of the mass and momentum transfer assumptions a back analysis of the 1999 nomash river landslide is included to show that the simple model is capable of simulating the bulk characteristics of a complex event involving substantial entrainment key words landslides debris flows rock avalanches entrainment erosion dynamic modelling

review of the timing and extent of glaciers during the last glacial cycle in the bordering mountains of tibet and in east asia new accelerator mass spectrometry 14c ams14c electron spin resonance esr and thermoluminescence tl dates for glacial successions in tibetan bordering mountains and in east asia show that glacier extent during the early middle mis3 4 parts of the last glacial cycle was larger than that of the late stage mis2 in last glacial cycle glaciation was not synchronous with the north hemisphere ice sheet maxima and changes in oceanic circulation that predominately control global climate there exist three seasonal precipitation patterns that control the accumulation and ablation on glaciers in the study areas areas dominated by westerlies including the east asia coastal islands experience glacier advance mainly because of increased winter precipitation these glaciers expand during glacial stages in contrast in areas dominated by summer precipitation in the interior of mainland except in the monsoonal high precipitation zone in southeast tibet and the hengduan mountain range tend not to develop large glaciers during major glacial stages

landslide amplification by liquefaction of runout path material after the 2008 wenchuan m 8 0 earthquake china here we propose that an earthquake can trigger the failure of a landslide mass while simultaneously triggering liquefaction of runout path materials before the arrival of the landslide mass thus greatly increasing the size and mobility of an overriding landslide during the 2008 wenchuan earthquake about 60 000 landslides were triggered directly resulting in about 20 000 casualties while these landslides mainly originated from steep slopes some landslides with high mobility formed in colluvial valley deposits among these the most catastrophic was the xiejiadian landslide in pengzhou city which traveled hundreds of meters before coming to rest through field investigation and laboratory testing we conclude that this landslide primarily formed from colluvial deposits in the valley and secondarily from failure of slopes in granitic rock located uphill much of the granitic slope failure was deposited in the upper part of the travel path near the slide head the remainder was dispersed throughout the main landslide deposit superposition of deposits at the landslide toe indicates that landslide debris derived from colluvial soil was deposited first the deposits at the landslide toe displayed flow characteristics such as fine materials comprising basal layers and large boulders covering the deposit surface we hypothesize that the main part of the landslide resulted from seismogenic liquefaction of valley colluvium rather than from liquefaction potentially caused by undrained loading from the granitic slope failures impacting the colluvium to examine the likelihood that seismogenic liquefaction occurred we took samples from different areas of the landslide deposit and performed undrained cyclic shear tests on them in the laboratory the results showed that the sandy soils that comprise most of the deposit are highly liquefiable under seismic loading therefore we conclude that liquefaction of the colluvium in the valley during the earthquake was the main reason for this rapid 46 m s long runout 1 7 km landslide

the 1786 earthquake triggered landslide dam and subsequent dam break flood on the dadu river southwestern china abstract chinese historic documents recorded that on june 1 1786 a strong m 7 75 earthquake occurred in the kangding luding area sichuan southwestern china resulting in a large landslide that fell into the dadu river as a result a landslide dam blocked the river ten days later the sudden breaching of the dam resulted in catastrophic downstream flooding historic records document over 100 000 deaths by the flood this may be the most disastrous event ever caused by landslide dam failures in the world although a lot of work has been carried out to determine the location magnitude and intensity of the 1786 earthquake relatively little is known about the occurrence and nature of the landslide dam in this paper the dam was reconstructed using historic documents and geomorphic evidence it was found that the landslide dam was about 70 m high and it created a lake with a water volume of about 50 106 m3 and an area of about 1 7 km2 the landslide dam breached suddenly due to a major aftershock on june 10 1786 the peak discharge at the dam breach was estimated using regression equations and a physically based predictive equation the possibility of a future failure of the landslide seems high particularly due to inherent seismic risk and detailed geotechnical investigations are strongly recommended for evaluating the current stability of the landslide

evaluation of landslide mechanisms characterized by high speed mass ejection and long run out based on events following the wenchuan earthquake abstract in the 2008 wenchuan earthquake the mass ejection type of high speed and long run out landslide was an unusual hazard characterized by its dramatic phenomenon of a huge slope mass launching into the air and becoming airborne for a long distance quantitative and qualitative combined techniques were applied to reveal the formation mechanism of this type of landslide four prerequisites critical to form mass ejection are identified high position of the toe of the surface of rupture critical height and critical inclination of slope sufficient open space in the movement direction and adequate take off speed of ski jump like mass ejection these four area specific prerequisites provide a promising approach for screening and targeting the potential landslides subsequently a dynamic reliability analysis method that considers the feature of energy time distribution is proposed this site specific method provides a more credible evaluation by emphasizing the most significant period within the whole earthquake duration finally an aerodynamic inverse method combined with an energy conservation based method is applied in the quantitative evaluation to calculate take off speed of mass ejection this paper provides a viable solution for regional screening and site assessment for new potential targets of this type of landslide

formation of immature asphalt from organic rich carbonate rocks ii correlation of maturation indicators the present study focuses on some discrepancies among maturation indicators of the senonian bituminous rocks sbr in israel these rocks are mainly carbonates that were deposited under reducing conditions and contain heteroatom rich organic matter that has been severely reworked by bacteria in two cases heavy asphaltic oils are associated with the sbr and a genetic relation between them has been established whereas the time temperature index tti 3 and vitrinite reflectance r0 0 3 0 4 indicate early stage maturation the bitumen content up to 700 mg g corg 1 and the asphaltic oils imply an oil generation zone in the sbr other indicators such as isomerization of hopanes and steranes and cpi values indicate even higher maturation levels the discrepancies between these maturation indicators are explained by the different kinetic parameters of the maturation processes in the various constituents of the organic matter

esr dating studies of palaeo debris flow deposits in dongchuan yunnan province china abstract the ages of palaeo debris flow deposits in dongchuan yunnan province were determined by esr dating they are consistent with a 14 c age estimate the results suggest that the debris flow deposits were formed during humid periods of the late pleistocene simulation experiments and sem analysis show that the resetting of ge centres in quartz is most likely due to collisions of the quartz grains during the process of rapid deposition

summer temperature reconstruction on the central tibetan plateau during 1860 2002 derived from annually resolved ice core pollen 1 we present a 140 year ice core pollen record with annual time resolution from the puruogangri ice field in the central tibetan plateau a linear regression model between the sum of the steppe and meadow pollen taxa and summer temperature at naqu accounts for 66 of the summer temperature variance for the period 1955 2002 on the basis of this model we reconstructed summer temperature history for the central tibetan plateau from 1860 to 2002 three marked warm periods during the 1870s 1890s and 1990s and five cold periods during the 1860s 1880s 1900s 1950s and 1960 1970s were identified within the last 100 years late 20th century warming is distinctive and may have had a major role in the present retreat of most glaciers on the tibetan plateau the pollen record is also significantly correlated with average annual temperatures over the whole tibetan plateau suggesting that these proxy data have the potential for reflecting large scale regional temperature change the statistically significant similarity between the puruogangri ice core pollen record and the 18o time series indicates that both are reliable indicators of temperature change at annual to multiyear timescales in this region

a review of glacial sequences of the kunlun pass northern tibetan plateau abstract in the kunlun pass area of northern tibet glacial landforms and sediments provide evidence for three major quaternary glaciations esr and tl dating suggest that they date to 600 700 ka wangkun glaciation 260 ka yakou glaciation and 61 13 ka yuzhufeng glaciation the last glacial each glaciation is less extensive than its predecessor the wangkun glaciation is the largest quaternary glaciation the extent of the glaciers during the wangkun glaciation was 3 5 times larger than that of the present glaciers during the last glacial glaciers advanced several times the moraines near the modern glaciers are probably the products of neoglaciation and little ice age

asphalts oils and bituminous rocks from the dead sea area a geochemical correlation study oils and asphalts gilsonite from the dead sea area israel were characterized by bulk composition specific c15 hydrocarbons n alkanes isoprenoids steranes triterpanes and aromatics including sulfur compounds and light hydrocarbons c2 to c8 molecular range these indicators complemented by literature data sulfur content sulfur isotope composition and distribution of petroporphyrins define the oils and asphalts as belonging to a single geochemical province the geochemical characteristics suggest a source material of bacterially reworked algae and a source rock poor in clay minerals probably a calcareous rock calcareous bituminous rocks of the campanian maestrichtian ghareb formation are exposed on the margin of the dead sea graben on downwarped blocks and they probably extend under the thick graben fill the agreement of the geochemical indicators suggests that these bituminous rocks are a potential source of the asphalts and oils in the dead sea area differences between the various types of hydrocarbon occurrences are due to a combination of several effects such as variations in source material the thermal history of the different downwarped blocks water washing and biodegradation the distribution characteristics of hydrocarbons c6 to c35 and c2 to c8 is sensitive to biodegradation and or water washing the aromatic fractions except very soluble compounds like benzene toluene etc are less affected by these processes and record the variability due to source and possibly thermal history the interpretation of the triterpane and sterane distribution corroborates that of other hydrocarbons with respect to maturation and type of source rock differences in maturation are pronounced the bituminous rocks and asphalts are immature and the oils are derived from source rocks in an initial stage of petroleum generation

osl dating of glacier extent during the last glacial and the kanas lake basin formation in kanas river valley altai mountains china the kanas river originates on the southern slope of youyi peak the largest center of modern glaciers in altai mountains china three sets of moraines and associated glacial sediments are well preserved near the kanas lake outlet recording a complex history and landscape evolution during the last glacial dating the moraines allows the temporal and spatial glacier shift and climate during the last glacial to be determined and then constrains when and how the kanas lake basin was formed dating of the glacial tills was undertaken by utilizing the optically stimulated luminescence osl method results date four samples from the three sets of moraines to 28 0 34 4 38 1 and 49 9 ka and one sample from outwash sediment to 6 8 ka the kanas lake basin is a downfaulted basin and was eroded by glacier before 28 0 ka and the glacial moraines blocked the glacier melt water after the glacier retreat which made the present day kanas lake eventually form at least before 6 8 ka bp in altai mountains the glacier advance was more extensive in marine isotope stage mis 3 than mis 2 probably because the mid latitude westerlies shifted northward and or intensified during the mis 3 resulting in a more positive glacier mass balance nevertheless the siberian high dominated the altai mountains in mis 2 resulting in a relative decrease in precipitation

a two phase mechanical model for rock ice avalanches rock ice avalanche events are among the most hazardous natural disasters in the last century in contrast to rock avalanches the solid phase ice can transform to fluid during the course of the rock ice avalanche and fundamentally alter mechanical processes a real two phase debris flow model could better address the dynamic interaction of solid rock and ice and fluid water snow slurry and fine particles than presently used single phase voellmy or coulomb type models we present a two phase model capable of performing dynamic strength weakening due to internal fluidization and basal lubrication and internal mass and momentum exchanges between the phases effective basal and internal friction angles are variable and correspond to evolving effective solid volume fraction friction factors volume fraction of the ice true friction coefficients and lubrication and fluidization factors benchmark numerical simulations demonstrate that the two phase model can explain dynamically changing frictional properties of rock ice avalanches that occur internally and along the flow path the interphase mass and momentum exchanges are capable of demonstrating the mechanics of frontal surge head and multiple other surges in the debris body this is an observed phenomenon in a real two phase debris flow but newly simulated here by applying the two phase mass flow model mass and momentum exchanges between the phases and the associated internal and basal strength weakening control the exceptional long runout distances provide a more realistic simulation especially during the critical initial and propagation stages of avalanche and explain the exceptionally high and dynamically changing mobility of rock ice avalanches

global positioning system measurements from eastern tibet and their implications for india eurasia intercontinental deformation we present and interpret global positioning system gps measurements of crustal motions for the period 1991 1998 for a network encompassing the eastern part of the tibetan plateau and its foreland relative to a eurasian frame defined by minimizing the velocities of 16 gps stations in europe central asia and siberia stations within all parts of the plateau foreland in south china move 6 10 mm yr east southeast indicating that the eastward movement within the plateau is part of a broader eastward movement that involves the plateau and its eastern and northern foreland north of the plateau foreland stations move northeastward at 10 mm yr indicating that the northern boundary of the deformation zone lies north of the plateau with this realization of a eurasian frame the velocity of the gps station at bangalore in southern india implies that the northward motion of india is 5 12 mm yr slower than that predicted from the nuvel 1a plate reconstruction viewed relative to the south china block stations of the northeast plateau bounded on the north by the qilian shan and the altyn tagh fault move nne to ne with velocities ranging from 19 mm yr within the plateau to 5 11 mm yr in its foreland the altyn tagh fault shows left lateral slip of 10 mm yr at 95 e and shortening across the fault of 5 mm yr stations south and west of the xianshuihe xiaojiang fault system define a crustal fragment rotating clockwise at 10 mm yr relative to the south china block around the eastern himalayan syntaxis the gps measurements indicate no significant shortening 3 mm yr within the longmen shan of the central eastern plateau and its adjacent foreland although the longmen shan rise over 6 km in 100 km horizontal distance geological studies indicate that the deformational field was established diachronously in late miocene to pliocene time was characterized by no east west shortening of tibetan crust and has an inhomogeneous style of deformation resulting from a balance of different tectonic processes

climatic and topographic controls on the style and timing of late quaternary glaciation throughout tibet and the himalaya defined by 10be cosmogenic radionuclide surface exposure dating abstract temporal and spatial changes in glacier cover throughout the late quaternary in tibet and the bordering mountains are poorly defined because of the inaccessibility and vastness of the region and the lack of numerical dating to help reconstruct the timing and extent of glaciation throughout tibet and the bordering mountains we use geomorphic mapping and 10 be cosmogenic radionuclide crn surface dating in study areas in southeastern gonga shan southern karola pass and central western nyainqentanggulha shan and tanggula shan tibet and we compare these with recently determined numerical chronologies in other parts of the plateau and its borderlands each of the study regions receives its precipitation mainly during the south asian summer monsoon when it falls as snow at high altitudes gonga shan receives the most precipitation 2000 mm a 1 while near the margins of monsoon influence the karola pass receives moderate amounts of precipitation 500 600 mm a 1 and in the interior of the plateau little precipitation falls on the western nyainqentanggulha shan 300 mm a 1 and the tanggula shan 400 700 mm a 1 the higher precipitation values for the tanggula shan are due to strong orographic effects in each region at least three sets of moraines and associated landforms are preserved providing evidence for multiple glaciations the 10 be crn surface exposure dating shows that the formation of moraines in gonga shan occurred during the early mid holocene neoglacial and little ice age on the karola pass during the lateglacial early holocene and neoglacial in the nyainqentanggulha shan date during the early part of the last glacial cycle global last glacial maximum and lateglacial and on the tanggula shan during the penultimate glacial cycle and the early part of the last glacial cycle the oldest moraine succession in each of these regions varies from the early holocene gonga shan lateglacial karola pass early last glacial western nyainqentanggulha shan and penultimate glacial cycle tanggula shan we believe that the regional patterns and timing of glaciation reflect temporal and spatial variability in the south asian monsoon and in particular in regional precipitation gradients in zones of greater aridity the extent of glaciation has become increasingly restricted throughout the late quaternary leading to the preservation of old 100 ka glacial landforms in contrast in regions that are very strongly influenced by the monsoon 1600 mm a 1 the preservation potential of pre lateglacial moraine successions is generally extremely poor this is possibly because lateglacial and holocene glacial advances may have been more extensive than early glaciations and hence may have destroyed any landform or sedimentary evidence of earlier glaciations furthermore the intense denudation mainly by fluvial and mass movement processes which characterize these wetter environments results in rapid erosion and re sedimentation of glacial and associated landforms which also contributes to their poor preservation potential

a dynamic model for rainfall induced landslides on natural slopes assessment of landslide hazard often requires a good knowledge of the landslide characteristics and runout mechanics in this paper a quasi three dimensional model using lagrangian finite element method lfem is formulated to reproduce the dynamic runout process caused by landslides a case study of rainfall induced landslide on a natural slope in 1993 in lantau island hong kong is presented voellmy rheology is adopted to characterize the multi dimensional runout behaviour for engineering applications the selection of appropriate rheology and the determination of relevant key parameters associated with the failure mechanisms and runout mechanics are highlighted details of the mathematical formulation particularly with respect to the stability of the numerical scheme and quality control of the mesh are provided the close correlation between the calculation results and the field observations shows that if an appropriate rheological relationship is selected for the simulation a reasonable description of the runout behaviour can be obtained using the present model implications of the potential hazard from natural terrain landslides to downslope development are also discussed used in conjunction with geographical information system gis database the model can also be applied to the preliminary hazard zoning of terrain and land use management in mountainous areas

the landslide story the catastrophic wenchuan earthquake induced an unprecedented number of geohazards the risk of heightened landslide frequency after a quake with potential secondary effects such as river damming and subsequent floods needs more focused attention

quaternary glacial chronology of the ateaoyinake river valley tianshan mountains china abstract the ateaoyinake river originates on the southern slope of the tumur peak the largest center of modern glaciation in the central tianshan mountains in china six sets of moraines and associated glacial sediments are well preserved in the ateaoyinake river drainage recording a complex history of quaternary glacial cycles and landscape evolution dating the landforms allow the temporal and spatial shifts of past cryosphere and climate to be determined dating of the tills and outwashes was undertaken with electron spin resonance esr and optically stimulated luminescence osl two osl ages date outwash and till to 7 3 0 8 ka and 12 3 1 2 ka respectively the esr ages date six sets of moraines to 3 4 ka 14 27 ka 40 54 ka 55 62 ka 134 4 12 6 ka and 219 7 20 5 ka 440 6 41 7 ka if these are correct ages of deposition they suggest that glaciers advanced during the neoglacial and during marine oxygen isotope stages mis 2 3b 4 6 and 12 the mis 3b moraine was created by a glacier nearly as large as or possibly larger than those of the global last glacial maximum of mis 2 the oldest till belongs to the qingshantou glacial stage its single age is consistent with two published esr ages 459 7 46 and 471 1 ka from the gaowangfeng till near the headwaters of the urumqi river in the eastern tianshan mountains these dates suggest that the central and the eastern segments of the tianshan mountains were high enough to be glaciated by mis 12 the geochronology of the glacial landforms in this valley is the first step towards understanding glacial and landscape evolution in this region furthermore this geochronology and previously published geochronology near the headwaters of the urumqi river provide a temporal framework for examining the rates of landscape evolution in the glaciated regions of the tianshan mountains

the geochemical characteristics of heavy oil and its recovery in liaohe basin china abstract heavy oils of the lower tertiary in the liaohe basin exhibit major differences in their biomarker composition although they have similar physical properties and bulk compositions our studies suggest that the formation of heavy oils is governed by two geochemical factors namely biodegradation and maturation the genetic classification of heavy oils has been made on the basis of gc and gc ms analysis features biodegradation is a main pathway for forming heavy oils when subjected to moderate biodegradation light oils are converted to heavy oils low maturity heavy oils are only associated with those carbonates or evaporites which are deposited under a highly reducing conditions these oils are derived from kerogen degradation at the early stage of thermal evolution genetic research of heavy oils gives useful information for aiding oil recovery low maturity heavy oils accumulate in highly permeable zones of the trap in this case steam drive recovery is most effective on the other hand biodegraded oils are found in low permeable zones whence recovery is difficult or impossible this result has been verified by the actual situation of recovery in liaohe oil field

entrainment of debris in rock avalanches an analysis of a long run out mechanism many rock avalanches entrain and liquefy saturated soil from their paths evidence for this includes mud displaced from the margins of rock avalanche deposits substrate material smeared along the base of deposits extrusion of liquefied soil upward through the deposits and increases of volume a hypothesis first suggested in 1881 and since reinforced by several authors suggests that entrainment of substrate material increases mobility although the process has been discussed in the literature for more than 100 years few detailed and quantitative descriptions exist the main purpose of this paper is to describe two recent cases from british columbia canada where rockslides entrained substrate on a very large scale influencing the character of the events estimated volume balance curves based on detailed field mapping are provided for both cases dynamic analyses are carried out using a numerical model and using the same set of rheological parameters the mechanism of material entrainment and displacement is discussed the data suggest that rapid rock failures entraining very large quantities of saturated substrate material represent a special type of landslide transitional between rock avalanche and debris avalanche many rock avalanches can thus be seen as end members of a continuum of phenomena involving rock failure followed by interaction with saturated substrate

comparison of monterey formation kerogens from the salinas basin and santa barbara area california abstract unweathered monterey kerogens from surface samples and wells in the santa barbara area and the salinas basin approximately 125 miles apart are oil prone good to excellent potential oil source rocks deposited under marine anoxic to suboxic conditions the kerogens in the surface samples are somewhat similar when viewed through the microscope and the differences result from the depositional conditions anoxic vs suboxic and the original organic matter that formed the amorphinite alginite vs exinite the bitumens extracted from these samples have similar carbon isotope values and gas chromatography fingerprints in the santa barbara area mudstones from the lower calcareous facies of the monterey formation contain greater than 90 fluorescent marine amorphinite ii kerogen that is oil prone type ii and mixed type ii and iii based on rock eval and toc analysis in the salinas basin kerogens from the calcerous sandholdt member of the monterey formation equivalent to the lower calcareous facies also contain greater than 90 amorphous highly oil prone amorphinite ii the upper siliceous monterey formation in the santa barbara area also contains large amounts of oil prone amorphinite ii and is compared to the weathered siliceous hames member in the salinas basin that contains a large amount of alginite the kerogens in the lower calcerous facies in both areas are thermally immature but contain solid bitumen and or oil droplets in the residues at low levels of vitrinite reflectance and tai mean r o values from 0 3 to 0 4 and tai values from 2 2 to 2 5

coseismic reverse and oblique slip surface faulting generated by the 2008 mw 7 9 wenchuan earthquake china the mw 7 9 wenchuan china earthquake ruptured two large thrust faults along the long menshan thrust belt at the eastern margin of the tibetan plateau this earthquake generated a 240 km long surface rupture zone along the beichuan fault and an additional 72 km long surface rupture zone along the pengguan fault maximum vertical and horizontal offsets of 6 5 m and 4 9 m respectively were measured along the beichuan fault a maximum vertical offset of 3 5 m was measured along the pengguan fault coseismic surface ruptures integrated with aftershocks and industry seismic profiles show that two imbricate structures have ruptured simultaneously resulting in the largest continental thrust event ever documented large oblique thrusting observed during this earthquake indicates that crustal shortening is an important process responsible for the high topography in the region as everywhere along the edge of tibetan plateau

thermal behavior of immature asphalts and related kerogens abstract immature asphalts suggested to originate from early stages of catagenesis and related kerogens were submitted to various pyrolysis analyses we have examined the idea that under certain conditions parts of kerogen cleave off to yield asphalt bulk parameters were recorded as well as gas chromatograms of the trapped pyroproducts thermal changes were followed through analyses of gases condensates and extracts formed the residual kerogens asphalts were examined for structural changes both closed and open systems experiments were conducted some aspects of high concentrations of organic sulfur bonded 8 0 12 9 s and low concentrations normal 1 5 2 1 s and their influence on thermal behavior were studied using samples from the dead sea rift valley and green river shale gilsonite the results obtained indicate very similar thermal behavior for kerogen immature asphalts pairs marked differences between various modes of thermal treatment and surprisingly marginal differences between hydrous nonhydrous closed system experiments

landscape analysis of the huang he headwaters ne tibetan plateau patterns of glacial and fluvial erosion the large scale geomorphology of the huang he yellow river headwaters centered around the bayan har shan 5267 m asl in the northeastern part of the tibetan plateau is dominated by an uplifted

influence of climate change on saline lakes of the tibet plateau 1973 2010 abstract levels and surface areas of saline lakes are indicators of climate change and climate variability the surface extents of 93 saline lakes with areas larger than 20 km2 excluding dry saline lakes on the tibet plateau were delineated from landsat images obtained in 1973 1977 1989 1992 1999 2001 and 2008 2010 based on remote sensing spatial analysis techniques and gis the dynamic changes of the saline lake surface areas from 1973 to 2010 were analyzed the total surface area of these saline lakes increased especially since around 2000 and the total surface area increased by 47 during 1973 1977 to 2008 2010 during 1973 1977 to 1989 1992 saline lakes with decreased areas were mainly distributed in the northern and middle parts of the tibet plateau whereas those in other places tended to expand since around 2000 nearly all the saline lakes expanded mean annual temperature mean annual maximum temperature mean annual minimum temperature annual precipitation and evaporation on the tibet plateau were analyzed over the past four decades the climate has become warmer and wetter rising temperature and dropping evaporation are two dominant factors responsible for saline lake expansion the salinity of many saline lakes decreased during this climate warming new analyses included factors responsible for the changes i e tectonics climate lake basin shape glaciers catchments open or closed systems and human activities

a model for the runout analysis of rapid flow slides debris flows and avalanches runout analyses are used for risk assessment and design of remedial measures against rapid landslides such as debris flows debris avalanches rockslide avalanches large scale liquefaction failure

a large landslide triggered by the 2008 wenchuan m8 0 earthquake in donghekou area phenomena and mechanisms abstract during the 2008 wenchuan earthquake more than 60 000 landslides were triggered resulting in about 20 000 casualties among these landslides a catastrophic one occurred in donghekou area of qingchuan county donghekou landslide had a volume of about 1 107 m3 traveled fast for approximately 2 km killing about 780 people the source area consisted of unstable sedimentary strata and the runout path was made of colluvial deposits during the earthquake the colluvial deposits started to move first before the arrival of the displaced landslide debris from the main source area we performed undrained cyclic ring shear tests on samples taken from the runout path and concluded that liquefaction of the runout path material enhanced the mobility of the debris material a fumarole was identified on the upper part of the runout path 6 months later we analyzed the gas and water venting out and concluded that the fumarole was not the result of fault movement it resulted instead from the weathering of slate from the source area the long travel landslide materials blocked two rivers forming two landslide dams that breached with the occurrence of overtopping to better understand the internal structure of the landslide deposits and then provide evidence for a rational plan of countermeasures to stabilize the landslide dams we measured the shear wave velocity of the landslide deposits by a surface wave technique called multichannel analysis of surface waves masw the results revealed that the landslide dams consisted of loosely deposited debris suggesting that the landslide dams were mechanically weak and prone to erosion by overtopping

a sph depth integrated model for popocatepetl 2001 lahar mexico sensitivity analysis and runout simulation abstract lahars are debris flows of volcanic origin which can endanger or even destroy communities located near the flanks of volcanoes lahars are not always triggered by eruptions they can form during heavy rainfall or after hydrothermal alteration and volcanic edifice collapse decision makers need lahar hazard maps to devise hazard prevention measures that will prevent casualties so lahar modelling is an important tool for assessing flow behavior and determining inundation areas the depth integrated numerical model used in this study is derived from the velocity pressure of the biot zienkiewicz model and was discretized using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics sph method to simulate a lahar that occurred at popocatepetl volcano in 2001 in order to investigate the convergence of the model we used a range of different sph mesh resolutions once the optimum mesh resolution was bounded we analyzed the model s sensitivity to the initial lahar volume the density of the geomaterial and the rheological parameter of the bingham fluid the results show that the sph depth integrated model produced a highly accurate simulation of the distribution and velocity of the 2001 lahar the study also shows the effects of sph mesh resolution and the relevant influence of rheological parameters

assessment of a catastrophic rock avalanche in the west mongolian altai mountains abstract a giant rock avalanche that resulted in the formation of a dammed lake was discovered during geological mapping in the valley of the dund tsenkher gol river munhkhairkhan soum western mongolian altai field and satellite data worldview 2 and sentinel 1 were used to obtain a geomorphological description of the landslide and a 3d geometric reconstruction of the rock avalanche with deposits exceeding 14 million cubic meters in volume the rock avalanche is one of the largest catastrophic landslides in the world the rock avalanche was controlled by tectonic setting the slope instability was favored by the presence of nw se and ne sw trending fault systems steep foliation and morphology the rock avalanche was likely triggered by an earthquake related to the activity of the tolbonuur and hovd faults although the area is sparsely populated the settlement of munhkhairkhan soum is threatened by rockfalls or even by rock avalanches that could be triggered by future earthquakes along these faults

distal deposition of tephra from the eyjafjallajokull 2010 summit eruption the 2010 eyjafjallajokull lasted 39 days and had 4 different phases of which the first and third 14 18 april and 5 6 may were most intense most of this period was dominated by winds with a northerly component that carried tephra toward europe where it was deposited in a number of locations and was sampled by rain gauges or buckets surface swabs sticky tape samples and air filtering in the uk tephra was collected from each of the phases 1 3 with a combined range of latitudes spanning the length of the country the modal grain size of tephra in the rain gauge samples was 25 mu m but the largest grains were 100 mu m in diameter and highly vesicular the mass loading was equivalent to 8 218 shards cm 2 which is comparable to tephra layers from much larger past eruptions falling tephra was collected on sticky tape in the english midlands on 19 20 and 21st april phase 2 and was dominated by aggregate clasts mean diameter 85 mu m component grains 10 mu m sem eds spectra for aggregate grains contained an extra peak for sulphur when compared to control samples from the volcano indicating that they were cemented by sulphur rich minerals e g gypsum caso4 center dot h2o air quality monitoring stations did not record fluctuations in hourly pm10 concentrations outside the normal range of variability during the eruption but there was a small increase in 24 hour running mean concentration from 21 24 april phase 2 deposition of tephra from phase 2 in the uk indicates that transport of tephra from iceland is possible even for small eruption plumes given suitable wind conditions the presence of relatively coarse grains adds uncertainty to concentration estimates from air quality sensors which are most sensitive to grain sizes 10 mu m elsewhere tephra was collected from roofs and vehicles in the faroe islands mean grain size 40 mu m but 100 mu m common from rainwater in bergen in norway 23 91 mu m and in air filters in budapest hungary 2 6 mu m a map is presented summarizing these and other recently published examples of distal tephra deposition from the eyjafjallajokull eruption it demonstrates that most tephra deposited on mainland europe was produced in the highly explosive phase 1 and was carried there in 2 3 days

the sequence of quaternary glaciation in the bayan har mountains four periods of quaternary glaciation in the pleistocene have been found in the area of the bayan har mountains they represent respectively the two stages of the last glacial age the penultimate ice age and an earlier ice age during the late stage of the last glacial age glaciers developed only near the mountain ridges of the bayan har in the earlier stage glaciers expanded down to the piedmont of the bayan har mountains and were as much as 40 km long in the penultimate ice age an extensive ice cover developed depositing an areally widespread till sheet erratics were transported 60 km from bayan har peak to qingshuihe town to the south and to yematan land to the north granitic erratics are also distributed over elevated geomorphological positions such as chalaping ridge the area of ice cover encompassed up to 50 000 km2 furthermore evidence including glacial landforms and sediments shows that a larger glaciation existed in this area in an earlier time possibly during the third most recent ante penultimate glaciation the scale of this glaciated area is greater than those of the more recent events in the qinghai xizang plateau extending over 80 000 km2 this glaciation covered the source area of the yellow river from xingsuhai in the west to duogerangtan in the east including the areas of gyaring and ngoring lakes based on the extent and locations of the glaciations the bayan har stage and galalahai stage of the last glacial age the yematan ice age and the huanghe glacial age can be recognized

on characteristics and dynamic analysis of the niumian valley rock avalanche triggered by the 2008 wenchuan earthquake sichuan china on may 12 2008 a large catastrophic rock avalanche was triggered by the wenchuan earthquake on niumian valley in yingxiu town wenchuan county china the displaced landslide materials traveled about 2 640 m with a descent of about 850 m and buried several houses and caused nearly 20 casualties based on detailed field investigation some basic characteristics of this landslide are introduced field investigation showed that the displaced landslide materials experienced three times of run up and twice of superelevation along the run out path and downslope enlargement due to the entrainment of run out path materials a numerical model dan3d is used to simulate the landsliding process by means of trial and error it can be seen that the voellmy model and values of friction coefficient f 0 19 dimensionless and turbulent coefficient xi 2 000 m s2 can provide the best performance in the prediction of sliding and depositing areas the simulated results show that the duration of the rock avalanche is about 120 s with an average velocity of 22 m s

kerogen asphaltene sulfur relationships in sulfur rich monterey oils abstract monterey oils in the santa maria basin onshore and offshore are generally low maturity oils because of low thermal exposure relatively shallow burial for short times they are generated as heavy high sulfur oils because of the composition of the unusual type ii source kerogens which are exceptionally rich in organic sulfur 8 14 these high sulfur kerogens which we designate type ii s appear to generate oil at significantly lower thermal exposures than ordinary type ii kerogens with less than 6 s in contrast to common type ii kerogens which generate oil largely by cleavage at oxygen bridge groups and carbon carbon bonds eliminating co2 h2o and hydrocarbon fragments type ii s kerogens have an additional complement of weak bonds associated with bound sulfur the preferential cleavage at weak sulfur linkages tends to produce larger fragments leading to high initial amounts of asphaltenes resins and sulfur rich aromatics together with smaller amounts of saturated hydrocarbons elemental analyses of monterey kerogens and asphaltenes clearly support the concept that the asphaltenes are essentially fragments of kerogen cleaved sufficiently to be soluble or peptized in this heavy oil system solubilization of asphaltenes is attributed to their interactions with the abundant resins and aromatics this sysstem is sufficiently stable under source and reservoir conditions to allow expulsion and migration for reasonable distance without significant fractionation or changes in gross properties initial asphaltenes have essentially the same atomic h c ratios as the source kerogen but have significantlyy lower o c ratios and slightly lower s c ratios the n c ratios are nearly the same for kerogens and their derived asphaltenes with increasing maturity the h c ratios in asphaltenes decrease much like maturation changes in kerogen the s c ratio also decreases significantly however the o c ratios initially low in asphaltenes and n c ratios increase slightly due to material balance caused by other losses these element composition and atomic ratio relationships allow some important inferences concerning source kerogen composition from analysis of asphaltenes alone this can be useful when potential source rock samples are not available for analysis and or when a choice between alternate source rock possibilities must be made

landslides induced by the 2008 wenchuan earthquake sichuan china the 2008 wenchuan earthquake with a magnitude of mw 7 9 induced numerous slope movements on the hanging walls of fault surface ruptures and on steep inner valleys along the minjiang river landslide moving directions showed preferred orientations normal to the fault ruptures indicating the effect of the directivity of the seismic wave the most common landslides were of carbonate rocks which are easily dissolved and decrease the contact surfaces the largest non volcanic landslide in history was induced in bedded dolomite by the earthquake and was preceded by gravitational deformation with ridge top depressions valley fill materials were mobilized at 36 locations probably by pore water pressure build up

glacier mass loss induced the rapid growth of linggo co on the central tibetan plateau remote sensing and gis techniques in conjunction with field investigations show how glacier mass loss has led to the rapid growth of linggo co a glacier fed lake on the central tibetan plateau which has expanded by 21 3 in area between 1974 and 2010 with a lake level rise of 11 2 m the lake volume of linggo co increased at a rate of 0 02 10 6 42 67 10 6 and 65 8 10 6 m 3 a 1 during the periods 1974 92 1992 99 and 1999 2010 respectively other non glacier fed lakes in the vicinity i e longwei co amur co and darngo co ngion shrank considerably from the early 1970s to 1992 and then expanded from 1992 to 2010 despite being in the same climate region linggo co and the non glacier fed lakes have differed in response to climate change the glaciers in the catchment of linggo co retreated by 2 4 in area between 1974 and 2007 and their mean thickness decreased by 6 19 1 91 m between 1974 and 2000 with an associated glacier meltwater runoff of 7 52 2 32 10 8 m 3 the results indicate that glacier mass loss had a significant impact on the growth of linggo co over the past 40 years

source characteristics of long runout rock avalanches triggered by the 2008 wenchuan earthquake china the may 12 2008 wenchuan china earthquake which measured m w 8 3 according to chinese earthquake administration cea m w 7 9 according to the usgs directly triggered many landslides which caused about 20 000 deaths a quarter of the total rock avalanches were among the most destructive landslides triggered by this seismic event and have killed more people than any other type of landslide in this earthquake the donghekou rock avalanche one example of a catastrophic avalanche triggered by the wenchuan earthquake occurred in qingchuan and buried one primary school and 184 houses resulting in more than 780 deaths and in addition caused the formation of two landslide dams which formed barrier lakes combining aerial images resolution of 0 5 m with field investigations this paper lists some parameters of 66 cases in one table and details source characteristics of six typical cases it has been found that most of the long runout rock avalanches have source areas with high relief and steep inclination causing the debris in the travel courses to accelerate there was also a large amount of saturated holocene age loose deposits formed by a river or gully that existed in the travel courses comparison studies indicate that saturated holocene loose deposits in the travel courses could be the most important factor for the causes of the long runout characteristic of the rock avalanches especially when they traveled over gentle or even flat ground surfaces furthermore the relationships among the relief slope gradient runout and covered area are investigated and a threshold line for predicting the maximum horizontal runout distance under certain change in elevation is presented c 2010 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

a dynamic biodegradation model suggested by petroleum compositional gradients within reservoir columns from the liaohe basin ne china abstract a suite of petroleum reservoir extracts from the liaohe basin ne china was analyzed to investigate the effects and controls of biodegradation on petroleum composition systematic changes seen as marked gradients in petroleum bulk composition component concentrations and molecular indicators have been observed in two biodegraded oil columns in the es3 column 1700 1850 m biodegradation has removed substantial amounts of normal and isoprenoid alkanes more severe biodegradation occurs in the shallower es1 column 1500 1650 m with both steranes and hopanes being partially removed temperature has an overall control on biodegradation in the two columns a lower reservoir temperature leading to a higher degree of biodegradation however observed variation in the degree of biodegradation in the es3 column at different sites is controlled by water leg size with a higher level of degradation being associated with a thicker water leg the supply of nutrients from the water leg is thought to have a significant impact upon the degree of biodegradation in addition to water leg size nutrient supply the compositional gradients also are controlled by the relative rate of mixing of fresh oil charge gradients can only be conserved in biodegraded petroleum columns if the rate of diffusive mixing is similar to or lower than the rate at which the hydrocarbons are removed a biodegradation model is proposed that couples geochemical and geological factors to provide a coherent approach for assessing the impact of degradation on petroleum our geochemical study indicates that biodegradation occurs mainly within a narrow region at or near the base of the oil column the stable compositional gradients are produced after an initial induction period involving diffusive transport of alkanes to the oil water contact owc and diffusion of biodegradation products such as 25 norhopanes and other metabolites away from the reaction site the mixing of continuously charged oil with residential biodegraded oil by diffusion may be considered as one of the most important factors controlling the biodegradation process the conceptual model illustrates all of these processes and opens the possibility of model driven prediction of oil properties and sweetspot location in reservoirs

cosmogenic radionuclide evidence for the limited extent of last glacial maximum glaciers in the tanggula shan of the central tibetan plateau abstract cosmogenic radionuclide crn exposure ages provide evidence for the limited extent of last glacial maximum glaciers in the tanggula shan central tibetan plateau the most extensive advances occurred during or before marine oxygen isotope stage 6 mis 6 based on previous crn exposure ages the second most extensive advance occurred during or before mis 4 based on previous ages and new ages of 41 400 4300 and 66 800 7100 10 be yr a mis 2 advance of less than 3 km occurred between 31 900 3400 and 16 000 1700 10 be yr

quaternary glaciation of tibet the geological evidence the question of the number and extent of pleistocene glaciations on the qinghai xizang tibet plateau remains contentious there has been considerable research activity in tibet by chinese scientists since the late 1950s and their principal findings including data on glacial and periglacial geomorphology sedimentology tectonics stratigraphy and lake history have been used to reconstruct ice margins and palaeosnowlines three and in places four distinct glaciations have been recognised the most extensive occurring in the later middle pleistocene valley and piedmont glacial systems with some mountain ice caps and a small ice sheet on the upper reaches of the huang he have been recognised but there is no evidence of a single tibetan ice sheet as the plateau and the himalaya karakoram underwent accelerating uplift through the quaternary there occurred progressive desiccation in the interior as the influx of indian ocean moisture was constrained equilibrium line elevations in the last glacial maximum were 4000 m in the south east and northeast plateau margins rising to 5500 m in the northwest interior the heat island provided by the plateau the progressive reduction in precipitation most marked during the glacials and the strong southeast to northwest precipitation gradients produced a glacier distribution pattern dominated by the trans tibetan mountain ranges tectonics and periglacial including aeolian processes have played an equal role with glaciation in generating the plateau s quaternary sedimentary succession

numerical simulation of petroleum generation and migration in the qingshui sag western depression of the liaohe basin northeast china a two dimensional basin modeling study was employed to analyze the petroleum generation and migration history of the qingshui sag in the western depression of the liaohe basin northeast china the eocene oligocene es4 and es3 members of the shahejie formation es are the most important source rocks responsible for the major hydrocarbon accumulations two sandstone beds of fan delta origin the dujiatai djt and the xinglongtai xlt are the primary reservoir rocks in the study area the model indicates that two migration systems can be differentiated they are separated by the thick shale beds of the middle es3 and es1 which acted as important regional seals for the lower and the upper systems respectively the djt bed is the most important pathway for migrating hydrocarbons in the lower system whereas the xlt bed is a significant factor in the upper system calibration of the model with thermal maturity data indicates that the geological evolution is consistent with typical heat flow values for rift basins in the range between 85 and 48 mw m2 all source units reached maturity during the major burial phase which extended from the oligocene to the eocene simulation results further indicate that after a cooling period renewed heating occurred and additional hydrocarbons were generated during the last 5 m y particularly in the southern part of the basin sensitivity tests indicated that the faults particularly the two main faults served as important conduits for petroleum throughout most of the geological history the main phase of migration occurred between the eocene and oligocene and was responsible for major accumulations in the west slope the central anticline and the central rise additional migration between 5 ma and the present is significant in the southwestern area and may have brought about petroleum accumulation in the central depression and central rise

vertical acceleration effect on landsides triggered by the wenchuan earthquake china the 2008 wenchuan earthquake with ms8 0 triggered extensive throwing pattern landslides in the area within or near the seismic faults the resultant landslides from this earthquake brought to the fore the effect of vertical earthquake acceleration on landslide occurrence the pseudostatic analysis and the dynamic response on landslide stability due to the wenchuan earthquake are studied with the chengxi west town catastrophic landslide used as a case study the results show that the epicenter distance is an important factor which affects the vertical acceleration and thus the stability of landslide also the vertical acceleration was found to have a significant impact on the fos of landslide if the earthquake magnitude is quite large within the seismic fault the amplitude effect of vertical acceleration is very dominant with the fos of landslide for vertical acceleration ranging from positive to negative having a variation of 25 the variation of fos of landslide for vertical acceleration ranging from positive to negative are 15 and 5 for landslides near seismic fault and outside seismic fault respectively for landslide with a slope angle 45 the fos of landslide with both horizontal and vertical accelerations is significantly greater than the one without vertical acceleration further the results computed from both the pseudostatic method and dynamic analysis reveal that the fos during the earthquake varied significantly whether vertical acceleration is considered or not the results from this study explain why lots of throwing pattern catastrophic landslides occurred within 10 km of the seismic fault in the wenchuan earthquake

quaternary glaciation of puruogangri the largest modern ice field in tibet abstract the puruogangri the largest modern ice field in the tibetan plateau with an area of over 400 km2 in total is in the inner plateau although it is very difficult to reach the scale of the ice field makes it important to study the quaternary glaciation in this inland area to determine whether there was a unified ice sheet in the tibetan plateau during the quaternary field observation showed that five moraine groups termed moraine i v of terminal moraines and lateral moraines are present located from the snouts of modern glaciers to the piedmont based on geomorphic locations stratigraphic correlation relative weathering reworked degrees by wind action and the esr ages of the sands covering the gobi with erratics as well as through comparison with the quaternary glaciations with numerical ages in western chinese mountains these moraine groups represent the modern moraine the little ice age neoglacial the late stage of the last glaciation and the early stage of the last glaciation respectively the granite boulders of moraine v are scattered for 6 km from the mountain front on an extensive peneplain this suggests that the ancient glaciers in the west slope of the ice field advanced to the piedmont during the late pleistocene but did not integrate with the ice in the mountains nearby to form a unified ice sheet

the hypermobility of huge landslides and avalanches abstract catastrophic failure of large land masses which generate landslides rockfalls and debris avalanches can have hazardous consequences extending far beyond the source observations show that the mobility of such events depends strongly on the volume for volumes larger than 10 6 m 3 with many different processes invoked to explain higher mobilities hypermobility for both terrestrial and extraterrestrial events although the mobility of large events has been extensively studied there is no generally accepted mechanism for predicting extreme travel distances because the underlying physical processes are poorly understood here we show using physical and rheological arguments that the wide scatter observed for very large mass wasting events in all environments collapses to a single relationship between event volume or inundation area and mobility hypermobility is defined to be the reciprocal of the effective friction coefficient e where the scale dependent e is derived analytically as a function of the mechanical volumetric and topographical parameters of the flow the dominant term in the coefficient is the degree of fluidization involved in the flow our results show that fluidization is limited in extraterrestrial events that significant fluidization occurs in non volcanic and volcanic events and fluidization dominates submarine events this analysis demonstrates that fluidization is associated with long run out distances and that the degree of fluidization can be predicted by the volume and physical and topographic parameters the methodology is simple physically based and validated with datasets of very large terrestrial and extraterrestrial avalanche events we demonstrate that the effective coulomb friction rheology and the hypermobility function are applicable to avalanche events of any size providing an opportunity to simulate past and or potential huge landslide and debris avalanche events run out distances destructive impact and assessment of risk the model can be used to estimate the overrun area and volume in terms of known mobility data

dda validation of the mobility of earthquake induced landslides abstract this paper studies the run out of earthquake induced landslides there are more than 20 mechanical models to explain long run out of rapid landslides including some earthquake induced landslides however notably few of them considered the effect of seismic loading on the run out of landslides in a previous study we have proposed a model which is called the multiplex acceleration model mam to interpret the long run out mechanism and a shaking table test has been performed to verify the mam because the previous mam is a conceptual model and only a single stone has been examined under sine waves by the shaking table test the mam needs to be extended and further verified in this paper the mam was extended by introducing the movement change that was induced by the so called trampoline effect of earthquake loading and the latest practical numerical simulation program discontinuous deformation analysis dda was used to verify the mobility of earthquake induced landslides after a conceptual landslide model was used to verify the effect of seismic loading on the mobility the donghekou landslide which was a typical long run out landslide that was induced by the 2008 wenchuan earthquake was analyzed the results show that the seismic loading could be one of the factors that could eventually help increase the run out of landslides

accelerated glacier mass loss 2011 2016 over the puruogangri ice field in the inner tibetan plateau revealed by bistatic insar measurements abstract the temporal variation of glacier mass balance during recent years remains poorly known for the mountain glaciers in the inner tibetan plateau itp due to the lack of field measurements in this study we retrieved the annual glacier mass balance of the puruogangri ice field which is the largest modern ice mass in the itp by differencing multi temporal digital elevation models dems generated with five pairs of tandem x bistatic interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar images acquired between april 2011 and january 2016 we compared the tandem x dems in january and april 2012 to estimate the x band radar penetration depth difference 0 61 0 06 m which enabled systematic bias correction in the estimation of annual glacier mass balance the observed mass balance reveals a glacier mass gain of 0 44 0 10 m w e yr 1 in 2011 12 which was followed by accelerated glacier mass loss in 2012 16 glacier mass balances of 0 13 0 03 0 34 0 06 and 0 52 0 10 m w e yr 1 were estimated for the periods of 2012 13 2013 14 and 2014 16 respectively this accelerating trend of glacier mass loss is likely caused by the continuous decrease in annual precipitation according to the climate data recorded by adjacent meteorological stations this study demonstrates that repeated bistatic insar measurement is a promising method for monitoring glacier elevation change and mass balance at regular intervals

relative dating of quaternary moraines rongbuk valley mount everest tibet implications for an ice sheet on the tibetan plateau abstract relative dating studies applied to high altitude moraines 5000 5500 m in the rongbuk valley on the northern flank of mt everest reveal strong contrasts in the weathering characteristics of the boulders exposed along moraine crests these differences serve to define three intervals of major pleistocene glaciation that on the basis of the degree of weathering are interpreted to extend back to at least the penultimate glaciation and probably encompass at least one still older glaciation either interpretation indicates that some of these moraines are considerably older than their previously assigned ages the magnitude of equilibrium line lowering during neoglacial and late pleistocene times is calculated to be ca 50 100 and 350 450 m respectively the data described here are incompatible with the recently proposed model kuhle 1987 for large scale ice sheet development on the tibetan plateau the reconstructed equilibrium line lowering in the everest region is only 30 of that cited in the ice sheet model moreover the flow patterns and geometry of the former rongbuk glaciers are in opposition to those proposed by the model based on the data from the everest region it appears that valley glaciation rather than ice sheet growth characterized the southern margin of the tibetan plateau during the middle and late pleistocene glaciations