Abstract
A volcanic slope on Izu Oshima Island in Japan experienced a significant rainfall-induced landslide disaster in October, 2013. Because this slope had been stable for centuries, a special investigation was carried out on the cause. Because of its volcanic origin, the failed slope consisted of layers of ash, sand and lava. While the investigation concerned many disciplines, this paper addresses the post-disaster geotechnical studies. The emphasis was put on the reason why some parts of the slope “did not” fail because the post-disaster construction of infrastructures in the affected area relied on the future stability of the affected mountain slope. In line with this, another focus was on the geohydrological characteristics in the underlying lava layer. We concluded that the lava layer is pervious and allows drainage of infiltrated rain water and that, only during extremely heavy rain, slope failures are triggered in subsurface “valleys” that are carved in lava bedrock. For seven years after the disaster, the remaining parts of the slope have been stable.
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Acknowledgements
This study was conducted as an emergency investigation after the disaster with a financial support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. It was supported by the Oshima Municipal Government, Ministry of Environment and Geopark of Oshima (Mr. A. Kajiya). The borehole data provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was essential. Collaboration was successfully made by Japanese Geotechnical Society, Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Japan Society of Engineering Geology and Japan Landslide Society. Boring investigations were carried out by the Chisui Kaihatsu Company. Sincere appreciation is dedicaetd to any members of our research group, including Dr. Gonghui Wang, Dr. Taro Uchimura and Dr. Hiroshi Yamaguchi whose names could not be included in the authors’ list of this paper due to number limitation.
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Towhata, I., Akima, T., Goto, S., Goto, S., Tanaka, J., Aoyama, S. (2021). Geologic and Hydrologic Investigations on Slope Failures Triggered by Extreme Rainfall on Izu Oshima Island, Japan. In: Arbanas, Ž., Bobrowsky, P.T., Konagai, K., Sassa, K., Takara, K. (eds) Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk. WLF 2020. ICL Contribution to Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60713-5_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60713-5_12
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