TY - JOUR A1 - Kober, Florian A1 - Zeilinger, Gerold A1 - Hippe, Kristina A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Lendzioch, Theodora A1 - Grischott, Reto A1 - Christl, Marcus A1 - Kubik, Peter W. A1 - Zola, Ramiro T1 - Tectonic and lithological controls on denudation rates in the central Bolivian Andes JF - Tectonophysics : international journal of geotectonics and the geology and physics of the interior of the earth N2 - The topographic signature of a mountain belt depends on the interplay of tectonic, climatic and erosional processes, whose relative importance changes over times, while quantifying these processes and their rates at specific times remains a challenge. The eastern Andes of central Bolivia offer a natural laboratory in which such interplay has been debated. Here, we investigate the Rio Grande catchment which crosses orthogonally the eastern Andes orogen from the Eastern Cordillera into the Subandean Zone, exhibiting a catchment relief of up to 5000 m. Despite an enhanced tectonic activity in the Subandes, local relief, mean and modal slopes and channel steepness indices are largely similar compared to the Eastern Cordillera and the intervening Interandean Zone. Nevertheless, a dataset of 57 new cosmogenic 10Be and 26AI catchment wide denudation rates from the Rio Grande catchment reveals up to one order of magnitude higher denudation rates in the Subandean Zone (mean 0.8 mm/yr) compared to the upstream physiographic regions. We infer that tectonic activity in the thrusting dominated Subandean belt causes higher denudation rates based on cumulative rock uplift investigations and due to the absence of a pronounced climate gradient. Furthermore, the lower rock strength of the Subandean sedimentary units correlates with mean slopes similar to the ones of the Eastern Cordillera and Interandean Zone, highlighting the fact, that lithology and rock strength can control high denudation rates at low slopes. Low denudation rates measured at the outlet of the Rio Grande catchment (Abapo) are interpreted to be a result of a biased cosmogenic nuclide mixing that is dominated by headwater signals from the Eastern Cordillera and the Interandean zone and limited catchment sediment connectivity in the lower river reaches. Therefore, comparisons of short- (i.e., sediment yield) and millennial denudation rates require caution when postulating tectonic and/or climatic forcing without detailed studies. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. KW - Rio Grande KW - seismicity KW - uplift KW - rock strength KW - cosmogenic nuclides KW - denudation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2015.06.037 SN - 0040-1951 SN - 1879-3266 VL - 657 SP - 230 EP - 244 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Meunier, Patrick A1 - Uchida, Taro A1 - Hayashi, Shin-Ichiro T1 - Transient changes of landslide rates after earthquakes JF - Geology N2 - Earthquakes impart an impressive force on epicentral landscapes, with immediate catastrophic hillslope response. However, their legacy on geomorphic process rates remains poorly constrained. We have determined the evolution of landslide rates in the epicentral areas of four intermediate to large earthquakes (M-w, 6.6-7.6). In each area, landsliding correlates with the cumulative precipitation during a given interval. Normalizing for this meteorological forcing, landslide rates have been found to peak after an earthquake and decay to background values in 1-4 yr, with the decay time scale probably proportional to the earthquake magnitude. The transient pulse of landsliding is not related to external forcing such as rainfall or aftershocks, and we tentatively attribute it to the reduction and subsequent recovery of ground strength. Observed geomorphic trends are not linked with groundwater level changes or root system damage, both of which could affect substrate strength. We propose that they are caused by reversible damage of rock mass and/or loosening of regolith. Qualitative accounts of ground cracking due to strong ground motion abound, and our observations are circumstantial evidence of its potential importance in setting landscape sensitivity to meteorological forcing after large earthquakes. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1130/G36961.1 SN - 0091-7613 SN - 1943-2682 VL - 43 IS - 10 SP - 883 EP - 886 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Boulder ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Amalgamation in landslide maps BT - effects and automatic detection JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - Inventories of individually delineated landslides are a key to understanding landslide physics and mitigating their impact. They permit assessment of area-frequency distributions and landslide volumes, and testing of statistical correlations between landslides and physical parameters such as topographic gradient or seismic strong motion. Amalgamation, i.e. the mapping of several adjacent landslides as a single polygon, can lead to potentially severe distortion of the statistics of these inventories. This problem can be especially severe in data sets produced by automated mapping. We present five inventories of earthquake-induced landslides mapped with different materials and techniques and affected by varying degrees of amalgamation. Errors on the total landslide volume and power-law exponent of the area-frequency distribution, resulting from amalgamation, may be up to 200 and 50 %, respectively. We present an algorithm based on image and digital elevation model (DEM) analysis, for automatic identification of amalgamated polygons. On a set of about 2000 polygons larger than 1000 m(2), tracing landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the algorithm performs well, with only 2.7-3.6% incorrectly amalgamated landslides missed and 3.9-4.8% correct polygons incorrectly identified as amalgams. This algorithm can be used broadly to check landslide inventories and allow faster correction by automating the identification of amalgamation. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-723-2015 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 15 IS - 4 SP - 723 EP - 733 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Meunier, P. T1 - The mass balance of earthquakes and earthquake sequences JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Large, compressional earthquakes cause surface uplift aswell as widespread mass wasting. Knowledge of their trade-off is fragmentary. Combining a seismologically consistent model of earthquake-triggered landsliding and an analytical solution of coseismic surface displacement, we assess how the mass balance of single earthquakes and earthquake sequences depends on fault size and other geophysical parameters. We find that intermediate size earthquakes (M-w 6-7.3) may cause more erosion than uplift, controlled primarily by seismic source depth and landscape steepness, and less so by fault dip and rake. Such earthquakes can limit topographic growth, but our model indicates that both smaller and larger earthquakes (M-w < 6, M-w > 7.3) systematically cause mountain building. Earthquake sequences with a Gutenberg-Richter distribution have a greater tendency to lead to predominant erosion, than repeating earthquakes of the same magnitude, unless a fault can produce earthquakes with M-w > 8 or more. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068333 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 43 SP - 3708 EP - 3716 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - THES A1 - Marc, Odin T1 - Earthquake-induced landsliding T1 - Erdbeben induzierten Hangrutschungen BT - earthquakes as erosional agents across timescales BT - Erdbeben als Erosions-Agenten über Zeitskalen N2 - Earthquakes deform Earth's surface, building long-lasting topographic features and contributing to landscape and mountain formation. However, seismic waves produced by earthquakes may also destabilize hillslopes, leading to large amounts of soil and bedrock moving downslope. Moreover, static deformation and shaking are suspected to damage the surface bedrock and therefore alter its future properties, affecting hydrological and erosional dynamics. Thus, earthquakes participate both in mountain building and stimulate directly or indirectly their erosion. Moreover, the impact of earthquakes on hillslopes has important implications for the amount of sediment and organic matter delivered to rivers, and ultimately to oceans, during episodic catastrophic seismic crises, the magnitude of life and property losses associated with landsliding, the perturbation and recovery of landscape properties after shaking, and the long term topographic evolution of mountain belts. Several of these aspects have been addressed recently through individual case studies but additional data compilation as well as theoretical or numerical modelling are required to tackle these issues in a more systematic and rigorous manner. This dissertation combines data compilation of earthquake characteristics, landslide mapping, and seismological data interpretation with physically-based modeling in order to address how earthquakes impact on erosional processes and landscape evolution. Over short time scales (10-100 s) and intermediate length scales (10 km), I have attempted to improve our understanding and ability to predict the amount of landslide debris triggered by seismic shaking in epicentral areas. Over long time scales (1-100 ky) and across a mountain belt (100 km) I have modeled the competition between erosional unloading and building of topography associated with earthquakes. Finally, over intermediate time scales (1-10 y) and at the hillslope scale (0.1-1 km) I have collected geomorphological and seismological data that highlight persistent effects of earthquakes on landscape properties and behaviour. First, I compiled a database on earthquakes that produced significant landsliding, including an estimate of the total landslide volume and area, and earthquake characteristics such as seismic moment and source depth. A key issue is the accurate conversion of landslide maps into volume estimates. Therefore I also estimated how amalgamation - when mapping errors lead to the bundling of multiple landslide into a single polygon - affects volume estimates from various earthquake-induced landslide inventories and developed an algorithm to automatically detect this artifact. The database was used to test a physically-based prediction of the total landslide area and volume caused by earthquakes, based on seismological scaling relationships and a statistical description of the landscape properties. The model outperforms empirical fits in accuracy, with 25 out of 40 cases well predicted, and allows interpretation of many outliers in physical terms. Apart from seismological complexities neglected by the model I found that exceptional rock strength properties or antecedent conditions may explain most outliers. Second, I assessed the geomorphic effects of large earthquakes on landscape dynamics by surveying the temporal evolution of precipitation-normalized landslide rate. I found strongly elevated landslide rates following earthquakes that progressively recover over 1 to 4 years, indicating that regolith strength drops and recovers. The relaxation is clearly non-linear for at least one case, and does not seem to correlate with coseismic landslide reactivation, water table level increase or tree root-system recovery. I suggested that shallow bedrock is damaged by the earthquake and then heals on annual timescales. Such variations in ground strength must be translated into shallow subsurface seismic velocities that are increasingly surveyed with ambient seismic noise correlations. With seismic noise autocorrelation I computed the seismic velocity in the epicentral areas of three earthquakes where I constrained a change in landslide rate. We found similar recovery dynamics and timescales, suggesting that seismic noise correlation techniques could be further developed to meaningfully assess ground strength variations for landscape dynamics. These two measurements are also in good agreement with the temporal dynamics of post-seismic surface displacement measured by GPS. This correlation suggests that the surface healing mechanism may be driven by tectonic deformation, and that the surface regolith and fractured bedrock may behave as a granular media that slowly compacts as it is sheared or vibrated. Last, I compared our model of earthquake-induced landsliding with a standard formulation of surface deformation caused by earthquakes to understand which parameters govern the competition between the building and destruction of topography caused by earthquakes. In contrast with previous studies I found that very large (Mw>8) earthquakes always increase the average topography, whereas only intermediate (Mw ~ 7) earthquakes in steep landscapes may reduce topography. Moreover, I illustrated how the net effect of earthquakes varies with depth or landscape steepness implying a complex and ambivalent role through the life of a mountain belt. Further I showed that faults producing a Gutenberg-Richter distribution of earthquake sizes, will limit topography over a larger range of fault sizes than faults producing repeated earthquakes with a characteristic size. N2 - Erdbeben gestalten die Erdoberfläche, sie tragen langfristig zum Aufbau von Topografie sowie zur Landschafts- und Gebirgsbildung bei. Die von Erdbeben erzeugten seismischen Erschütterungen können Gebirge jedoch auch destabilisieren und grosse Mengen an Boden sowie Grundgestein zum Abrutschen bringen und zerrüten. Erdbeben wirken daher sowohl auf die Gebirgsbildung als auch auf ihre Denudation. Ein detailliertes Verständnis der Auswirkungen von Erdbeben auf Hangstabilität ist eine wichtige Voraussetzung um die Zusammenhänge mit anderen Prozesse besser nachzuvollziehen: der kurzfristige Transport von Sedimenten und organischem Material in Flüsse und ihre Ablagerung bis in die Ozeane; der Verlust von Leben und Infrastruktur durch Hangrutschungen verbunden mit episodischen, katastrophalen, seismischen Ereignissen; die Störung und Wiederherstellung von Landschaftseigenschaften nach Erdbeben; sowie die langfristigen topographischen Entwicklung von ganzen Gebirgsketten. Einige dieser Forschungsfragen wurden kürzlich in einzelnen Fallstudien betrachtet aber zusätzliche Datenerfassung, theoretische und numerische Modellierung sind erforderlich, um diese Prozesse detaillierter zu erfassen. In dieser Dissertation werden Daten zu Eigenschaften der Erdbeben sowie aus Hangrutsch kartierungen und die Interpretation seismologischer Daten mit physikalischer Modellierung kombiniert, um die folgende übergreifende Frage zu beantworten: Wie beeinflussen Erdbeben die Erosionsprozesse in der Landschaftsentwicklung? Auf einer kurzen Zeitskala (10-100 s) und einer mittleren räumlichen Skala (10 km), habe ich versucht sowohl unser Prozessverständnis zu vertiefen als auch Vorhersagen über das gesamte Volumen der Rutschungen welche durch seismische Beben in der unmittelbaren Umgebung von Epizentren ausgelöst wurden, zu treffen und zu verbessern Auf einer langen Zeitskala (1-100 ky) und über einen Gebirgsgürtel (100 km) habe ich die durch Erdbeben ausgelösten konkurrierenden Prozesse von Abflachung von Topografie durch Erosion und den Aufbau von Topografie durch Hebung, modelliert. Auf einer mittleren Zeitskala (1-10 Jahre) und einer relativ kleinen Hangskala (0,1-1 km) habe ich geomorphologische und seismologische Daten erhoben, welche die anhaltenden Auswirkungen von Erdbeben auf Landschaftseigenschaften und deren Dynamic hervorheben. Zuerst habe ich eine Datenbank von Erdbeben erstellt, welche erhebliche Hangrutschungen ausgelöst hatten, einschliesslich einer Schätzung des gesamten Hangrutschungsvolumens und der Erdbebencharakteristiken wie z.B. seismischer Moment und Lage des Hypozentrums. Ich habe auch beurteilt, wie die Kartierung von Erdrutschen die Abschätzungen des Gesamtvolumens fehlerhaft beeinflussen können und präsentiere einen Algorithmus, um solche Fehler automatisch zu erkennen. Diese Datenbank wurde verwendet, um eine physisch-basierte Vorhersage der durch Erdbeben verursachten gesamten Hangrutschungsflächen und Volumen zu testen, welche auf seismologischen Skalierungsbeziehungen und auf einer statistischen Beschreibung der Landschaftseigenschaften basiert. Zweitens untersuchte ich den Einfluss von starken Erdbeben auf die Landschaftsdynamik durch das Vermessen der temporalen Entwicklung der Suszeptibilität von Hangrutschungen. Ich habe gezeigt, dass die stark erhöhte Hangrutschrate nach dem Erdbeben schrittweise nach einigen Jahren zurückging. Diesen Rückgang über die Zeit interpretiere ich als die Zerrüttung von oberflächennahem Gestein durch das Erdbeben und die Heilung der dadurch entstandenen Risse über der Zeit. Meine Daten deuten darauf hin, dass die Zerrüttungen und die anschliessende Heilung des Festgesteins in dem epizentralen Gebieten mit ambienten, seismischen Hintergrundrauschen überwacht werden kann. Möglicherweise wird die Heilung zusätzlich durch andauernde post-seismische Deformation angetrieben. Am Ende der Arbeit vergleiche ich meine entwickelten Modelle von erdbebenbedingten Hangrutschungen mit einer Standardformel für erdbebenverursachte Oberflächendeformierung. Mit diesem Vergleich zeige ich welche Parameter den Wettstreit zwischen der Hebung von Topografie und der gleichzeitigen Zerstörung von Topografie durch Erdbeben bestimmen. Ich zeige, dass nur mittlere - Mw ~ 7 - Erdbeben die Topografie reduzieren können im Gegensatz zu stärkeren - Mw > 8 - Beben die immer einen effektive Bildung von Topografie verursachen. Meine Ergebnisse zeigen die komplexen Zusammenhänge von Erdbeben in der Gebirgsbildung. KW - earthquake KW - landslide KW - erosion KW - Erdbeben KW - Erdrutsch KW - Erosion KW - topography KW - Topographie Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96808 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Meunier, Patrick A1 - Gorum, Tolga A1 - Uchida, Taro T1 - A seismologically consistent expression for the total area and volume of earthquake-triggered landsliding JF - Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface N2 - We present a new, seismologically consistent expression for the total area and volume of populations of earthquake-triggered landslides. This model builds on a set of scaling relationships between key parameters, such as landslide spatial density, seismic ground acceleration, fault length, earthquake source depth, and seismic moment. To assess the model we have assembled and normalized a catalog of landslide inventories for 40 shallow, continental earthquakes. Low landscape steepness causes systematic overprediction of the total area and volume of landslides. When this effect is accounted for, the model predicts the total landslide volume of 63% of 40 cases to within a factor 2 of the volume estimated from observations (R-2 = 0.76). The prediction of total landslide area is also sensitive to the landscape steepness, but less so than the total volume, and it appears to be sensitive to controls on the landslide size-frequency distribution, and possibly the shaking duration. Some outliers are likely associated with exceptionally strong rock mass in the epicentral area, while others may be related to seismic source complexities ignored by the model. However, the close match between prediction and estimate for about two thirds of cases in our database suggests that rock mass strength is similar in many cases and that our simple seismic model is often adequate, despite the variety of lithologies and tectonic settings covered. This makes our expression suitable for integration into landscape evolution models and application to the anticipation or rapid assessment of secondary hazards associated with earthquakes. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JF003732 SN - 2169-9003 SN - 2169-9011 VL - 121 SP - 640 EP - 663 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Emberson, Robert A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Galy, Albert A1 - Marc, Odin T1 - Oxidation of sulfides and rapid weathering in recent landslides JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - Bedrock landslides, by excavating deep below saprolite-rock interfaces, create conditions for weathering in which all mineral phases in a lithology are initially unweathered within landslide deposits. As a result, the most labile phases dominate the weathering immediately after mobilisation and during a transient period of depletion. This mode of dissolution can strongly alter the overall output of solutes from catchments and their contribution to global chemical cycles if landslide-derived material is retained in catchments for extended periods after mass wasting. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-727-2016 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 4 SP - 727 EP - 742 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Emberson, Robert A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Galy, Albert A1 - Marc, Odin T1 - Chemical weathering in active mountain belts controlled by stochastic bedrock landsliding JF - Nature geoscience N2 - A link between chemical weathering and physical erosion exists at the catchment scale over a wide range of erosion rates(1,2). However, in mountain environments, where erosion rates are highest, weathering may be kinetically limited(3-5) and therefore decoupled from erosion. In active mountain belts, erosion is driven by bedrock landsliding(6) at rates that depend strongly on the occurrence of extreme rainfall or seismicity(7). Although landslides affect only a small proportion of the landscape, bedrock landsliding can promote the collection and slow percolation of surface runoff in highly fragmented rock debris and create favourable conditions for weathering. Here we show from analysis of surface water chemistry in the Southern Alps of New Zealand that weathering in bedrock landslides controls the variability in solute load of these mountain rivers. We find that systematic patterns in surface water chemistry are strongly associated with landslide occurrence at scales from a single hillslope to an entire mountain belt, and that landslides boost weathering rates and river solute loads over decades. We conclude that landslides couple erosion and weathering in fast-eroding uplands and, thus, mountain weathering is a stochastic process that is sensitive to climatic and tectonic controls on mass wasting processes. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO2600 SN - 1752-0894 SN - 1752-0908 VL - 9 SP - 42 EP - + PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tanyas, Hakan A1 - van Westen, Cees J. A1 - Allstadt, Kate E. A1 - Jessee, M. Anna Nowicki A1 - Gorum, Tolga A1 - Jibson, Randall W. A1 - Godt, Jonathan W. A1 - Sato, Hiroshi P. A1 - Schmitt, Robert G. A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Presentation and Analysis of a Worldwide Database of Earthquake-Induced Landslide Inventories JF - Journal of geophysical research : Earth surface N2 - Earthquake-induced landslide (EQIL) inventories are essential tools to extend our knowledge of the relationship between earthquakes and the landslides they can trigger. Regrettably, such inventories are difficult to generate and therefore scarce, and the available ones differ in terms of their quality and level of completeness. Moreover, access to existing EQIL inventories is currently difficult because there is no centralized database. To address these issues, we compiled EQIL inventories from around the globe based on an extensive literature study. The database contains information on 363 landslide-triggering earthquakes and includes 66 digital landslide inventories. To make these data openly available, we created a repository to host the digital inventories that we have permission to redistribute through the U.S. Geological Survey ScienceBase platform. It can grow over time as more authors contribute their inventories. We analyze the distribution of EQIL events by time period and location, more specifically breaking down the distribution by continent, country, and mountain region. Additionally, we analyze frequency distributions of EQIL characteristics, such as the approximate area affected by landslides, total number of landslides, maximum distance from fault rupture zone, and distance from epicenter when the fault plane location is unknown. For the available digital EQIL inventories, we examine the underlying characteristics of landslide size, topographic slope, roughness, local relief, distance to streams, peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and Modified Mercalli Intensity. Also, we present an evaluation system to help users assess the suitability of the available inventories for different types of EQIL studies and model development. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JF004236 SN - 2169-9003 SN - 2169-9011 VL - 122 SP - 1991 EP - 2015 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Meunier, Patrick A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Prediction of the area affected by earthquake-induced landsliding based on seismological parameters JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - We present an analytical, seismologically consistent expression for the surface area of the region within which most landslides triggered by an earthquake are located (landslide distribution area). This expression is based on scaling laws relating seismic moment, source depth, and focal mechanism with ground shaking and fault rupture length and assumes a globally constant threshold of acceleration for onset of systematic mass wasting. The seismological assumptions are identical to those recently used to propose a seismologically consistent expression for the total volume and area of landslides triggered by an earthquake. To test the accuracy of the model we gathered geophysical information and estimates of the landslide distribution area for 83 earthquakes. To reduce uncertainties and inconsistencies in the estimation of the landslide distribution area, we propose an objective definition based on the shortest distance from the seismic wave emission line containing 95% of the total landslide area. Without any empirical calibration the model explains 56% of the variance in our dataset, and predicts 35 to 49 out of 83 cases within a factor of 2, depending on how we account for uncertainties on the seismic source depth. For most cases with comprehensive landslide inventories we show that our prediction compares well with the smallest region around the fault containing 95% of the total landslide area. Aspects ignored by the model that could explain the residuals include local variations of the threshold of acceleration and processes modulating the surface ground shaking, such as the distribution of seismic energy release on the fault plane, the dynamic stress drop, and rupture directivity. Nevertheless, its simplicity and first-order accuracy suggest that the model can yield plausible and useful estimates of the landslide distribution area in near-real time, with earthquake parameters issued by standard detection routines. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-1159-2017 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 17 SP - 1159 EP - 1175 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rault, Claire A1 - Robert, Alexandra A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Meunier, Patrick T1 - Seismic and geologic controls on spatial clustering of landslides in three large earthquakes JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - The large, shallow earthquakes at Northridge, California (1994), Chi-Chi, Taiwan (1999), and Wenchuan, China (2008), each triggered thousands of landslides. We have determined the position of these landslides along hillslopes, normalizing for statistical bias. The landslide patterns have a co-seismic signature, with clustering at ridge crests and slope toes. A cross-check against rainfall-induced landslide inventories seems to confirm that crest clustering is specific to seismic triggering as observed in previous studies. In our three study areas, the seismic ground motion parameters and lithologic and topographic features used do not seem to exert a primary control on the observed patterns of landslide clustering. However, we show that at the scale of the epicentral area, crest and toe clustering occur in areas with specific geological features. Toe clustering of seismically induced landslides tends to occur along regional major faults. Crest clustering is concentrated at sites where the lithology along hillslopes is approximately uniform, or made of alternating soft and hard strata, and without strong overprint of geological structures. Although earthquake-induced landslides locate higher on hillslopes in a statistically significant way, geological features strongly modulate the landslide position along the hillslopes. As a result the observation of landslide clustering on topographic ridges cannot be used as a definite indicator of the topographic amplification of ground shaking. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-829-2019 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 7 IS - 3 SP - 829 EP - 839 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Behling, Robert A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Turowski, Jens M. A1 - Illien, Luc A1 - Roessner, Sigrid A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Long-term erosion of the Nepal Himalayas by bedrock landsliding BT - the role of monsoons, earthquakes and giant landslides JF - Earth surface dynamics N2 - In active mountain belts with steep terrain, bedrock landsliding is a major erosional agent. In the Himalayas, landsliding is driven by annual hydro-meteorological forcing due to the summer monsoon and by rarer, exceptional events, such as earthquakes. Independent methods yield erosion rate estimates that appear to increase with sampling time, suggesting that rare, high-magnitude erosion events dominate the erosional budget. Nevertheless, until now, neither the contribution of monsoon and earthquakes to landslide erosion nor the proportion of erosion due to rare, giant landslides have been quantified in the Himalayas. We address these challenges by combining and analysing earthquake- and monsoon-induced landslide inventories across different timescales. With time series of 5 m satellite images over four main valleys in central Nepal, we comprehensively mapped landslides caused by the monsoon from 2010 to 2018. We found no clear correlation between monsoon properties and landsliding and a similar mean landsliding rate for all valleys, except in 2015, where the valleys affected by the earthquake featured similar to 5-8 times more landsliding than the pre-earthquake mean rate. The longterm size-frequency distribution of monsoon-induced landsliding (MIL) was derived from these inventories and from an inventory of landslides larger than similar to 0.1 km(2) that occurred between 1972 and 2014. Using a published landslide inventory for the Gorkha 2015 earthquake, we derive the size-frequency distribution for earthquakeinduced landsliding (EQIL). These two distributions are dominated by infrequent, large and giant landslides but under-predict an estimated Holocene frequency of giant landslides (> 1 km(3)) which we derived from a literature compilation. This discrepancy can be resolved when modelling the effect of a full distribution of earthquakes of variable magnitude and when considering that a shallower earthquake may cause larger landslides. In this case, EQIL and MIL contribute about equally to a total long-term erosion of similar to 2 +/- 0.75 mm yr(-1) in agreement with most thermo-chronological data. Independently of the specific total and relative erosion rates, the heavy-tailed size-frequency distribution from MIL and EQIL and the very large maximal landslide size in the Himalayas indicate that mean landslide erosion rates increase with sampling time, as has been observed for independent erosion estimates. Further, we find that the sampling timescale required to adequately capture the frequency of the largest landslides, which is necessary for deriving long-term mean erosion rates, is often much longer than the averaging time of cosmogenic Be-10 methods. This observation presents a strong caveat when interpreting spatial or temporal variability in erosion rates from this method. Thus, in areas where a very large, rare landslide contributes heavily to long-term erosion (as the Himalayas), we recommend Be-10 sample in catchments with source areas > 10 000 km(2) to reduce the method mean bias to below similar to 20 % of the long-term erosion. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-107-2019 SN - 2196-6311 SN - 2196-632X VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 107 EP - 128 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brunello, Camilla Francesca A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Schneider, Katharina A. A1 - Comiti, Francesco A1 - Achleitner, Stefan A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Annually resolved monsoon onset and withdrawal dates across the Himalayas derived from local precipitation statistics JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - A local and flexible definition of the monsoon season based on hydrological evidence is important for the understanding and management of Himalayan water resources. Here, we present an objective statistical method to retrieve seasonal hydrometeorological transitions. Applied to daily rainfall data (1951-2015), this method shows an average longitudinal delay of similar to 15 days, with later monsoon onset and earlier withdrawal in the western Himalaya, consistent with the continental progression of wet air masses. This delay leads to seasons of different length along the Himalaya and biased precipitation amounts when using uniform calendric monsoon boundaries. In the Central Himalaya annual precipitation has increased, due primarily to an increase of premonsoon precipitation. These findings highlight issues associated with a static definition of monsoon boundaries and call for a deeper understanding of nonmonsoonal precipitation over the Himalayan water tower.
Plain Language Summary Precipitation in the Himalayas determines water availability for the Indian foreland with large socioeconomic implications. Despite its importance, spatial and temporal patterns of precipitation are poorly understood. Here, we estimate the long-term average and trends of seasonal precipitation at the scale of individual catchments draining the Himalayas. We apply a statistical method to detect the timing of hydrometeorological seasons from local precipitation measurements, focusing on monsoon onset and withdrawal. We identify longitudinal and latitudinal delays, resulting in seasons of different length along and across the Himalayas. These spatial patterns and the annual variability of the monsoon boundaries mean that oft-used, fixed calendric dates, for example, 1 June to 30 September, may be inadequate for retrieving monsoon rainfall totals. Moreover, we find that, despite its prominent contribution to annual rainfall totals, the Indian summer monsoon cannot explain the increase of the annual precipitation over the Central Himalayas. Instead, this appears to be mostly driven by changes in premonsoon and winter rainfall. So far, little attention has been paid to premonsoon precipitation, but governed by evaporative processes and surface water availability, it may be enhanced by irrigation and changed land use in the Gangetic foreland. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088420 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 47 IS - 23 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Illien, Luc A1 - Sens-Schönfelder, Christoph A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Marc, Odin A1 - Cook, Kristen L. A1 - Adhikari, Lok Bijaya A1 - Hovius, Niels T1 - Seismic velocity recovery in the subsurface BT - transient damage and groundwater drainage following the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal JF - Journal of geophysical research : Solid earth N2 - Shallow earthquakes frequently disturb the hydrological and mechanical state of the subsurface, with consequences for hazard and water management. Transient post-seismic hydrological behavior has been widely reported, suggesting that the recovery of material properties (relaxation) following ground shaking may impact groundwater fluctuations. However, the monitoring of seismic velocity variations associated with earthquake damage and hydrological variations are often done assuming that both effects are independent. In a field site prone to highly variable hydrological conditions, we disentangle the different forcing of the relative seismic velocity variations delta v retrieved from a small dense seismic array in Nepal in the aftermath of the 2015 M-w 7.8 Gorkha earthquake. We successfully model transient damage effects by introducing a universal relaxation function that contains a unique maximum relaxation timescale for the main shock and the aftershocks, independent of the ground shaking levels. Next, we remove the modeled velocity from the raw data and test whether the corresponding residuals agree with a background hydrological behavior we inferred from a previously calibrated groundwater model. The fitting of the delta v data with this model is improved when we introduce transient hydrological properties in the phase immediately following the main shock. This transient behavior, interpreted as an enhanced permeability in the shallow subsurface, lasts for similar to 6 months and is shorter than the damage relaxation (similar to 1 yr). Thus, we demonstrate the capability of seismic interferometry to deconvolve transient hydrological properties after earthquakes from non-linear mechanical recovery. KW - earthquake damage KW - earthquake hydrology KW - relaxation KW - Gorkha earthquake KW - seismic monitoring KW - ambient noise Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023402 SN - 2169-9313 SN - 2169-9356 VL - 127 IS - 2 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -