Millions of lives have been lost over the years as a result of the effects of earthquakes. One of these devastating effects is slope failure, more commonly known as landslide. Over the years, seismologists and engineers have teamed up to better record data during an earthquake. As technology has advanced, the data obtained have become more refined, allowing engineers to use the data in their efforts to estimate earthquakes where they have not yet occurred. Several methods have been proposed over time to utilize the earthquake data and estimate slope displacements. A pioneer in the development of methods to estimate slope displacements, Nathan Newmark, proposed what is now called the Newmark sliding block method. This method explained in very simple ways how a mass, in this case a rigid block, would slide over an incline given that the acceleration of the block surpassed the frictional resistance created between the bottom of the block and the surface of the incline. Because many of the assumptions from this method were criticized by scientists over time, modified Newmark sliding block methods were proposed. As the original and modified Newmark sliding block methods were introduced, the need to account for the uncertainty in the way soil would behave under earthquake loading became a big challenge. Deterministic and probabilistic methods have been used to incorporate parameters that would account for some of the uncertainty in the analysis. In an attempt to use a probabilistic approach in understanding how slopes might fail, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center proposed a performance-based earthquake engineering framework that would allow decision-makers to use probabilistically generated information to make decisions based on acceptable risk. Previous researchers applied this framework to simplified Newmark sliding block models, but the approach is difficult for engineers to implement in practice because of the numerous probability calculations that are required. The work presented in this thesis provides a solution to the implementation of the performance-based approach by providing a simplified procedure for the performance-based determination of seismic slope displacements using the Rathje & Saygili (2009) and the Bray and Travasarou (2007) simplified Newmark sliding block models. This document also includes hazard parameter maps, which are an important part of the simplified procedure, for five states in the United States. A validation of the method is provided, as well as a comparison of the simplified method against other commonly used approaches such as deterministic and pseudo-probabilistic.

Uniaxial consolidation experiments on Mass Transport Deposit (MTD) and non-MTD core samples from Ursa Basin, Gulf of Mexico, show MTDs have a lower porosity at a given effective stress compared to adjacent non-MTD sediments; a behavior observed in additional experiments on lab remolded Ursa core and resedimented Boston Blue Clay (BBC). I hypothesize debris flow action remolded the sediment: removing its stress history through shearing action, resulting in dense sediments at shallow depth. I supplement testing this hypothesis through lab remolding of BBC (in addition to Ursa clay) due to the greater availability and knowledge of this material. Ursa MTDs record multiple submarine slope failure events within the upper 200 meters below sea floor (mbsf); the most prominent is labeled MTD-2. MTDs have lower porosity and higher bulk density than surrounding, non-MTD, sediment. Porosity ([phi]) is 52% at 125mbsf – immediately below MTD-2; whereas [phi] is 46% at 115mbsf – within MTD-2. Comparison of non-MTD samples to MTD-2 samples, and intact to remolded samples, shows a decrease in sediment compressibility (Cc) within the MTD-2 and remolded sediments. Permeability within Ursa mudstones also declines with porosity according to: log (k) = A[phi] - B. Permeability is slightly higher within MTD-2; however grain size analysis indicates lower clay content in MTD-2 versus the non-MTDs. Pre-consolidation stress interpretations from the experiments show a linear trend in both MTD and non-MTD sediments, indicating both geologic units depict the same pore pressure profile. Remolding via debris flow explains the origin of MTDs at Ursa and governs the evolution of this geologic unit to its dense, highly consolidated, state today. At some point, slope failure triggered movement of the sediment down slope in form of a debris flow. The shearing action of the debris flow weakened the sediment, reducing its ability to support the overburden. As consolidation resumed, the remolded sediment followed a new, less steep, Cc curve. Within the geologic record, a distinctive dense, shallow unit is preserved; evidence for historical slope failure. / text

Lihir Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea is one of the largest gold mines in the world situated in a seismically sensitive zone. The gold deposit is located in an extinct volcano in close proximity to the sea shore and presents a series of geohazards. Some geohazards are uncommon and include: geothermal outbursts, cavities, water inrush and earthquake/ tsunami. After a major multi-batter (5 benches high) slope failure that occurred on the 1st of October 2009, a team of engineers, lead by the author investigated the incident and made series of recommendations. Arising out of these recommendations, a comprehensive Geohazard Management Plan was formulated by revisiting, revising and putting together all the individual geohazard management plans as a single document. This thesis describes the outcomes of the investigation and presents an overview and systematic approach in formulation of the Geohazard Management Plan, apart from a summary of the gaps that were identified in the existing system, major contributions that were made as well as the expected improvements and constraints in managing these geohazards. / Mining Engineering

This study presents the results of probabilistic modeling of plane and wedge types of slope failures, based on the &rdquo / Advance First Order Second Moment (AFOSM)&rdquo / reliability method. In both of those failure types, two different failure criteria namely, Coulomb linear and Barton Bandis non-linear failure criteria are utilized in the development of the probabilistic models. Due to the iterative nature of the AFOSM method, analyzing spreadsheets have been developed in order to carry out the computations. The developed spreadsheets are called &ldquo / Plane Slope Analyzer (PSA)&rdquo / and &ldquo / Wedge Slope Analyzer (WSA)&rdquo / . The developed probabilistic models and their spreadsheets are verified by investigating the affect of rock and slope parameters such as, ground water level, slope height, cohesion, friction angle, and joint wall compressive strength (JCS) and their distribution types on the reliability index (&amp / #946 / ), and probability of slope failure (PF). In this study, different probability distributions are used and the inverse transformation formulas of their non-normal variates to their equivalent normal ones are developed as well. In addition, the wedge failure case is also modeled by using system reliability approach and then the results of conventional probability of failure and the system reliability approach are compared.

No description available.

Construction of rock slopes is needed in many civil work projects. It is for example very common in road and railway cuts, but other applications include excavation for tunneling or building foundations, where perhaps sensitive constructions are present in the immediate vicinity. In Sweden the majority of the rock is hard crystalline bedrock of relatively good quality, and the fracture orientation have a large effect of the stability of the rock slope.If the geology is not properly considered for when the design of the slope is carried out, it can result in slope failure, with severe consequences. This applies especially if the rock slope is high, but unwanted effects like increased excavation and construction costs, could occur also in smaller slopes if the risks are not identified and managed. However, it is difficult to standardize design of rock slopes in fractured hard crystalline rock because of the uncertainties and variations in the geological conditions during the design phase.Rock mass characterization systems like Rock mass rating, RMR (Bieniawski 1989) and the Qsystem (Barton, Lien och Lunde 1974) are commonly used to describe the general rock mass quality. Whilst a good rock mass quality is generally easier to construct in, stability problems do occur due to structural geology in rock slopes even in good rock mass quality. The application of these systems in rock slopes can be problematic as they do not describe the geometry of the slope and how the fractures daylight in the slope face. Instead, stereonets can be used to visualize this, but fracture parameters of large importance for stability (persistence, roughness and alteration) are traditionally not presented in a stereonet analysis. Additionally, these parameters and the structural geological conditions can be difficult to predict and can vary significantly over short distances, why it can be difficult to forecast and predict failure in the design face.Slope instability due to large sliding and wedge failures have been observed in a large number of slopes in crystalline rock, and a standard method for design of rock slopes is lacking. This has given rise to the research question of how best to describe rock mass conditions, how to design slopes in crystalline rock and how to manage these risks during construction.To investigate this, three rock slopes where large failure had occurred were selected for the case study and were mapped, characterized and analyzed. The results from the case study showed that all rock slopes investigated had in common that failure had occurred along fractures of large persistence. This highlights the importance of evaluating the geology in the correct scale and suggest that lineament studies and other elevation based interpretation are perhaps more useful than previously thought. It also came to light that the planning and design process is inflexible which in many cases lead to large risks being overlooked or left unnoticed.A flow chart for risk classification was produced and suggested for aid in decision making aiming at simplifying project management of rock slopes, as well as aiding in visualization of the risk that rock slopes can be associated to.

Regional landslide risk, as it is most commonly defined, is a product of the following: hazard, vulnerability and exposed population. The first objective of this research project is to estimate the regional landslide hazard level by calculating its probability of slope failure based on maximum slope angles, as estimated using data provided by digital elevation models (DEM). Furthermore, it addresses the impact of DEM resolution on perceived slope angles, using local averaging theory, by comparing the results predicted from DEM datasets of differing resolutions. Although the likelihood that a landslide will occur can be predicted with a hazard assessment model, the extent of the damage inflicted upon a region is a function of vulnerability. This introduces the second objective of this research project: vulnerability assessment. The third and final objective concerns the impact of urbanization and population growth on landslide risk levels.