Evaluating controls on the aspect dependence of earthflows in the central California Coast Ranges
Abstract
Earthflows are an important mass-wasting process in many mountainous landscapes. In addition to radically changing the fabric of the landscape and damaging man-made infrastructure, earthflows deliver, for their area, a disproportionately large sediment load to rivers. In California, earthflows are typically restricted to clay-rich and mechanically-weak lithologies, such as the Franciscan mélange. In addition, several studies have observed that earthflows in California favor south-facing slopes, even in settings with spatially-uniform lithology. This fundamental observation remains largely unexplained under the current understanding of earthflow behavior. Here, we evaluate the controls on the aspect dependence of earthflows in the Alameda Creek watershed near Fremont, California, where many large, but relatively inactive earthflows are observed in the Franciscan mélange. We first apply spectral analysis to LiDAR-derived digital elevation models to objectively map the topographic signature of landslides and determine the degree of aspect dependence. We then explore several hypotheses that can explain our observation that earthflows tend to form on south-facing slopes, including: (1) lack of dense vegetation and trees with slope-stabilizing root systems on south-facing slopes; (2) higher pore fluid pressures due to relatively lower rates of evapotranspiration on sparsely vegetated south-facing slopes; (3) increased dessication and/or deformation cracking on south-facing earthflow surfaces, creating fast-flow pathways into the interior of landslides.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFMEP53A0760N
- Keywords:
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- 4302 NATURAL HAZARDS Geological