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Failure mechanism of an ancient sensitive clay landslide in eastern Canada

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Abstract

This paper presents a geotechnical study of a Champlain Sea clay landslide at Breckenridge, Quebec, Canada. Previous studies have interpreted the landslide as triggered by an earthquake occurred about 1020 cal years BP. The current study is to estimate the minimum ground acceleration required to trigger the landslide as part of an effort to further understand the earthquake. The study consists of field and laboratory testing and slope stability analysis. Considerable evidences are presented to understand the slope failure mechanism. The result indicates a minimum horizontal ground acceleration of 0.28 g occurred at the site. Most importantly, the paper provides a case history for better understanding landslide hazards associated with sensitive clay failures in the region. Particularly, the study finds that the landslide is a “flake” type failure as opposed to a retrogressive failure commonly perceived for Champlain Sea clay landslides. It brings to light the “flake” slide as an important factor to consider for improvement of the current predictive models for sensitive clay failures. It also shows that earthquake-triggered “flake” slide can be much larger than retrogressive failures in the same settings. The case history may therefore help as a reference for improved mitigative measures.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Alain Grenier for his assistance on field works. Greg Brooks kindly provided access to LiDAR data and insight into the landslide. His knowledge on the landslides in the study area allowed optimization of the field work plans. Katie MacDonald assisted in initial field works. The author would also like to thank Greg Brooks, Scott Dallimore, and Ted Lawrence for their kind input to the earlier works. Kind review and comments from Kevin MacKillop and two other anonymous reviewers helped improve the quality of the paper considerably. This paper is a product of the Public Safety Geoscience Program of Natural Resources Canada with NRCan contribution number: 20180294.

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  1. Natural Resources Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0E8, Canada

    Baolin Wang

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Wang, B. Failure mechanism of an ancient sensitive clay landslide in eastern Canada. Landslides 16, 1483–1495 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01198-4

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