Volume expansion rates of seismic landslides and influencing factors: A case study of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

When a big landside occurs, source material can change into loose deposit during its runout, causing the increase of the total landslide volume to some extent. Such changes can influence the quantification of seismic landslides. The objective of this paper was to study the volume expansion rate of landslides based on the data of 1417 co-seismic landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Mw 7.9 earthquake. We also analyzed the correlations between this rate and landslide geometric parameters (volume, height (H), length-width ratio (L/W), length-height ratio (L/H)), and environmental factors (peak ground acceleration (PGA), lithology, slope angle and aspect). The results show that the total source volume of the 1417 landslides is 1248 million m3, while the total volume of the deposit is 1501 million m3, which means the total volume expanding rate (Et) is 20.3% with the average volume expansion rate (Ea) 22.6%. The analysis indicates that volume expansion rate generally decreases with the increasing volume and height of landslides, while becoming larger with increasing L/H and L/W. Besides, the volume expansion rate is closely related to the landslide type and the volume scale of landslides. This study analyses volume change of co-seismic landslides deeply, permitting to help the correct quantification of the source volume and deposit volume of seismic landslide and a useful reference for the correct quantification of landslide volume.