Glacial Rock Sliding

Automated sliding susceptibility mapping of rock slopes

We present a suite of extensions for ARCVIEW GISTM (ESRI) that allows to map the spatial distribution of first-order mechanical slope-properties in hard rock terrain, e.g. for large slope areas like water reservoir slopes. Besides digital elevation data, this expert-system includes regional continuous grid-based data on geological structures that might act as potential sliding or cutoff planes ...

On the effective stress law for rock-on-rock frictional sliding, and fault slip triggered by means of fluid injection

Fluid injection into rocks is increasingly used for energy extraction and for fluid wastes disposal, and can trigger/induce small- to medium-scale seismicity. Fluctuations in pore fluid pressure may also be associated with natural seismicity. The energy release in anthropogenically induced seismicity is sensitive to amount and pressure of fluid injected, through the way that seismic moment rele...

Response of glacial landscapes to spatial variations in rock uplift rate

[1] The response of glaciated landscapes to rapid rock uplift, driven by tectonic convergence, is an important, often neglected, aspect of proposed interactions between plate tectonic processes and climate change. Rivers typically respond to more rapid rock uplift in part through increasing channel gradients. In contrast, the ‘‘glacial buzzsaw’’ hypothesis suggests that glaciers can erode as qu...

Determination of Sliding Path in Rock Slopes Containing Coplanar Non-Persistent Open Discontinuity

In 3-D analyses of rock slopes there’re can be numerous sliding paths a long a coplanar nonpersistent discontinuity with a known strike. This paper describes an approach for the determination of a most probable sliding path. For this particular study, several blocks of gypsum with the dimensions of 15×15×15 cm containing coplanar non-persistent open joints were fabricated. The models have vario...

Shear Strength of Unfilled and Rough Rock Joints in Sliding Stability Analyses of Concrete Dams