SpringerLink
Log in

Evaluating pedogenesis and soil Atterberg limits for inducing landslides in the Western Ghats, Idukki District of Kerala, South India

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Natural Hazards Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the Western Ghats of India, the soil properties, particularly Atterberg limits, are of relevance to the landslides. Pedogenic processes in the Western Ghats and plateaus on it are regulated by parent materials, relief (topography), organisms, climate, and time. In this study, the five major soils found within the mid-part of the Western Ghats in the Idukki district of Kerala, Southern India was analyzed for elucidating physical, chemical, and geotechnical properties (Atterberg limits) on landslides potentiality or slope failure processes. The result reveals that the highly weathered lateritic soils noted with lower KCl pH (3.6–4.6), low-cation exchange capacity (3.1 to 19.6 cmol( +) kg−1), low-effective cation exchange capacity (0.8 to 10.7 cmol( +) kg−1) and a negative ∆pH value indicate the presence of variable charge minerals such as amorphous sesquioxides. The variable ranking of random forest revealed that the soil Atterberg limits were significantly influenced by Citrate Bicarbonate Dithionite (CBD) iron, sand fractions, and organic carbon. The layer of porous sandy soils showed lower Atterberg limits due to accentuate with clay matter, whereas the illuvial layer (Bt) have noted as higher Atterberg limits that lead to potentially collapsing gullies or triggering mass movement during heavy rainfall followed by intensive runoff due to instability of soil mass within proxy of the steeply slo** surface. Soil geotechnical properties such as liquid limit, plastic limit, and plasticity index are the main characteristics that decide the slope stability and failure in various parts of the study area, whereas the soil profile morphometry has significantly associated with the occurrence of landslides with the plastic limit value between 28.01 and 40.48. It was noticed that the failed slopes have a higher value than stable slopes along with the hill-range topography, with soil particle sizes range of silt and clay (8.79 to 36.17 and 22.31 to 57.74%) with the measurement of liquid limit (40.05 to 68.4), plastic limit (24.2 to 43.94), and plasticity index (7.81 to 24.8). This indicates that the pedogenesis of the weathering profile of soils have significantly influenced the Atterberg limits that triggering slope failure or landslides along the gullies and weathered lateritic uplands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Germany)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3
Fig. 4
Fig.5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arlauckas SM, Hurowitz JA, Tosca NJ, McLennan SM (2004) Iron oxide weathering in sulfuric acid:Implications for Mars. 35th lunar and planetary science conference, League City, Texas, abstract no. 1868

  • ASTMD (2010) Standard test methods for liquid limit, plastic limit, and plasticity index of soils. ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, p 2010

    Google Scholar 

  • Atterberg A (1911) Die Plastizita¨t der Tone. Int Mitt Bodenkd 1:10–43 (in German)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharyya T, Sen TK, Singh RS, Nayak DC, Sehgal JL (1994) Morphology and classification of Ultisols with kandic horizon in the north-eastern region. J Indian Soc Soil Sci 42:301–306

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanco-Canqui H, Lal R, Owens LB et al (2005) Mechanical properties and organic carbon of soil aggregates in the Northern Appalachians. Soil Sci Soc Am J 69:1472–1481. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2004.0356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boulanger RW, Idriss IM (2006) Liquefaction susceptibility criteria for silts and clays. J Geotech Geo-environ Eng 132:1413–1426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casagrande A (1932) Research on the Atterberg Limits of Soils. Public Roads 13(8):121–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Cecile G, Coulouma G (2018) Importance of the spatial extent for using soil properties estimated by laboratory VNIR/SWIR spectroscopy: examples of the clay and calcium carbonate content. Geoderma 330:244–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.06.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandran P, Ray SK, Bhattacharyya T, Srivastava P, Krishnan P, Pal DK (2005) Laterite soils of Kerala, India: their mineralogy, genesis and taxonomy. Aust J Soil Res 43:839–852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charkley FN, Zhang K, Mei G (2019) Shear strength of compacted clays as affected by mineral content and wet dry cycles. Adv Civ Eng. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/8217029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chemtob SM, Nickerson RD, Morris RV, Agresti DG, Catalano JG (2015) Synthesis and structural characterization of ferrous trioctahedral smectites: Implications for clay mineral genesis and detectability on Mars. J. Geophys. Res. Planets 120:1119–1140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chigira M, Yagi H (2006) Geological and geomorphological characteristics of landslides triggered by the 2004 Mid Niigata prefecture earthquake in Japan. Eng Geol 82:202–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho H, Matthews GJ, Harel O (2018) Confidence intervals for the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in the presence of ignorable missing data: confidence intervals for auc with missing data. Int Stat Rev 87:152–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Den Y, Cai C, **a D, Ding S, Chen J, Wang T (2017) Soil Atterberg limits of different weathering profiles of the collapsing gullies in the hilly granitic region of southern China. Solid Earth 8:499–513. https://doi.org/10.5194/se-8-499-

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frenkel H, Levy GJ, Fey MV (1992) Clay dispersion and hydraulic conductivity of clay-sand mixtures as affected by the addition of various anions. Clays Clay Miner 40:515–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Havaee S, Mosaddeghi MR, Ayoubi S (2014) In situ surface shear strength as affected by soil characteristics and land use in calcareous soils of central Iran. Geoderma 237(3):137–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.08.016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemmat A, Aghilinategh N, Rezainejad Y, Sadeghi M (2010) Long-term impacts of municipal solid waste compost, sewage sludge and farmyard manure application on organic carbon, bulk density and consistency limits of a calcareous soil in central Iran. Soil Till Res 108:43–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heshmati M, Arifin A, Shamshuddin J, Majid NM, Ghaituri M (2011) Factors affecting landslides occurrence in agro-ecological zones in the merek catchment. Iran J Arid Environ 75:1072–1082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Igwe O, Fukuoka H (2015) The effect of water-saturation on the stability of problematic slopes at the Iva Valley area Southeast Nigeria. Arab J Geosci 8:3223–3233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ML (1973) Soil chemical analysis. Prentice Hall of India (Pvt) Ltd, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Jegede G (2000) Effect of soil properties on pavement failures along the F209 highway at AdoEkiti, South-Western, Nigeria. Constr Build Mater 14:311–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaliraj S, Chandrasekar N, Ramachandran KK (2017) Map** of coastal landforms and volumetric change analysis in the south west coast of Kanyakumari, south India using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Egy J Remote Sens Space Sci 20(2):1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Khormali F, Ajami M (2011) Pedogenetic investigation of soil degradation on a deforested loess hillslope of Golestan Province, Northern Iran. Geoderma 167–168:274–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2011.07.030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitutu MG, Muwanga A, Poesen J, Deckers JA (2009) Influence of soil properties on landslide occurrences in bududa district, Eastern Uganda African. J Agric Res 4:611–620

    Google Scholar 

  • Krishnan P, Venugopal KR, Sehgal J (1996) Soil resource of Kerala for land use planning. NBSS Publ 48b (Soils of India Series 10) National bureau of soil survey and land use planning, Nagpur, India, 54p + 2 sheet soil map (1:5,000,000 scale)

  • Kuriakose SL (2010) Physically-based dynamic modelling of the effect of land use changes on shallow landslide initiation in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Utrecht, Enschede, the Netherlands

  • Kuriakose SL, Sankar G, Muraleedharan C (2009) History of landslide susceptibility and a chorology of landslide-prone areas in the Western Ghats of Kerala. India Environ Geol 57(7):1553–1568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martha TR, Roy P, Khanna K, Mrinalni K, Vinod Kumar K (2019) Landslides mapped using satellite data in the Western Ghats of India after excess rainfall during August 2018. Curr Sci 117(5):804–812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehra OP, Jackson ML (1958) Iron oxide removal from soils and clays by a dithionite-citrate system buffered with sodium bicarbonate. Clay Miner 7:317–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao L, Liu S, Lai Y (2002) Research of soil-water characteristics and shear strength features of Nanyang expansive soil. Eng Geol 65:261–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motaka PA, Fozao KF, Yerima BPK, Ngole VN, Ntasin BE, Ekoss GI, Ayonghe SN (2012) Geotechnical and physico chemical properties of clays associated with landslides in volcanic and metamorphic terrains in Cameroon, Central Africa. J Cameroon Acad Sciences 10(1):9–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Mugagga F, Kakembo V, Buyinza M (2012) A characterization of the physical properties of soil and the implications for landslide occurrence on the slopes of mount Elgon, Eastern Uganda. Nat Hazards 60:1113–1131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair KM, Anil Kumar KS, Lalitha M, Khandal S, Ramesh Kumar SC, Srinivas S, Koyal A, Parvathy S, Sujatha K, Thamban C, Mathew J, Chandran KP, Haris A, Krishnakumar V, Srinivasan V, Jacob JJ, Nagaraj JS, D’Souza MV, Raghuramulu Y, Hegde R, Singh SK (2019) Surface soil and sub-soil acidity in natural and managed land-use systems in the humid tropics of Peninsular India. Curr Sci 116(7):1201–1211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peech M, Cowan RL, Baker JH (1962) A critical study of the bacl2-triethanolamine and the ammonium acetate methods for determining the exchangeable hydrogen content of soils. Soil Sci Soc Am Proc 26:37–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peretyazhko TS, Fox A, Sutter B, Niles PB, Adams M, Morris RV, Ming DW (2016) Synthesis of akaganeite in the presence of sulfate: Implications for akaganeite formation in Yellowknife Bay, Gale crater, Mars. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 188:284–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piper CS (1966) Soil and plant analysis. Inter-Science publication. Inc, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramezanpour H, Esmaeilnejad L, Akbarzadeh A (2010) Influence of soil physical and mineralogical properties on erosion variations in Marlylands of Southern Guilan Province, Iran Int. J Phys Sci 5:365–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Rihan W, Zhao J, Zhang H, Guo X, Ying H, Deng G, Li H (2019) Wildfires on the mongolian plateau: identifying drivers and spatial distributions to predict wildfire probability. Remote Sens 11(20):2361. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soil Survey Staff (2004) Soil survey laboratory methods manual. Soil survey investigations rep 42. USDA–NRCS, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Soil Survey Staff (2014a) Keys to soil taxonomy, 12th edn. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparks (1996) Methods of soil analysis part-II: chemical methods. Soil Science Society of America, USA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stanchi S, Freppaz M, Godone D, Zanini E (2013) Assessing the susceptibility of alpine soils to erosion using soil physical and site indicators. Soil Use Manag 29:586–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanchi S, D’Amico M, Zanini E, Freppaz M (2015) Liquid and plastic limits of mountain soils as a function of the soil and horizon type. CATENA 135:114–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sulal NL, Archana KG (2019) Note on post disaster studies for landslides occurred in june 2018 at Idukki District, Kerala. Geological Survey of India, Thiruvananthapuram

    Google Scholar 

  • Thampi PK, Mathai J, Sankar G (1995) Landslides (urulpottal) in Western Ghats: some field observations. In proceedings of the seventh kerala science congress, Palakkad, January, pp. 97–99

  • Van der Walt HVH, Valentin C (1992) Soil crusting the African view. In: Sumner ME, Stewart BA (eds) Soil crusting. Chemical and physical processes. Lewis Publisher, Boca Raton, Fl, pp 301–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Velde B (1992) Introduction to clay minerals. Chapman & Hall, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walkley A, Black IA (1934) An examination of Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci 37:29–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waltham AC (1994) Foundations of engineering geology. Alden Press, Oxford, p 88

    Google Scholar 

  • White WA, Pichler E (1959) Water-sorption characteristics of clay minerals. Division of the illinois state geological survey. Circular 266

  • Yalcin A (2007) The effects of clay on landslides: A case study. Appl Clay Sci 38:77–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2007.01.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yalcin A (2011) A geotechnical study on the landslides in the Trabzon Province, NE, Turkey. Appl Clay Sci 52:11–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge Dr. Cécile Gomez (IRD), Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences, Bangalore collaborator of the ATCHA project for her guidance in Spectroradiometer measurement and data acquisition.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Regional Centre, Bangalore, 560024, India

    M. Lalitha, K. S. Anil Kumar, K. M. Nair, S. Dharumarajan, Arti Koyal, Shivanand Khandal & Rajendra Hegde

  2. Central Geomatics Laboratory (CGL), Ministry of Earth Sciences, National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), Govt. of India, Thiruvananthapuram, 695011, India

    S. Kaliraj

Authors
  1. M. Lalitha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. K. S. Anil Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. M. Nair
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. Dharumarajan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Arti Koyal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Shivanand Khandal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. S. Kaliraj
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Rajendra Hegde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Lalitha.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lalitha, M., Kumar, K.S.A., Nair, K.M. et al. Evaluating pedogenesis and soil Atterberg limits for inducing landslides in the Western Ghats, Idukki District of Kerala, South India. Nat Hazards 106, 487–507 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04472-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04472-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation