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Evaluating the effects of climate change on different stages of weathering in some granitic and granodioritic landslide prone areas of Japan

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Abstract

Landslides in different areas of Japan are strongly affected by various roles of weathering under different climatic contexts. In this study, different granitic and granodioritic landslide-prone regions in central to southwest Japan's bedrock and soil samples are described in terms of their physical characteristics. This aims to evaluate the different levels of weathering and their impact on landslides under variable environmental conditions. In this study, bulk density decreases and porosity increases gradually from fresh bedrock to weathered upper surface soils. As a result, pore spaces are increased due to interlocking of grains and the parent minerals change to form secondary minerals, increasing the amount of clay in the mixture. Furthermore, it is confirmed by the grain size analysis. An empirical model was developed by analyzing average yearly temperature and precipitation data (during a 30-year span from 1981 to 2010) with bulk density, porosity, and permeability coefficient to look into the effects of climate on different weathering levels. Climatic data indicated that with increasing temperature bulk density increased and porosity and permeability coefficient decreased while precipitation did not follow the same trend. It also turned out that temperature variation led to an increase in the percentages of clay size particles. In addition, it was also found that weathering is more prominent in granodioritic areas that granitic areas. Therefore, it is evident that as weathering advanced and rocks broke down into smaller pieces due to an increase in temperature, losing a significant amount of their strength which ultimately led to the substantial landslide failure.

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The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This is a collaborative research work between National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, Japan (NIED) and Saitama University (SU). One of the authors, Md. Hasan Imam is grateful to the Japanese government especially to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) for providing fund (Monbukagakushuo scholarship) during his study in Japan. The authors also would like to express their sincere thankfulness to Dr. Mohammad Rajib, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), for cordial help on our laboratory analyses during his stay in Japan as graduate students at Saitama University.

Funding

This research works is supported by the Japanese government especially the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) as Monbukagakusho scholarship fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Md. Hasan Imam

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan

    Chiaki T. Oguchi

  3. National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), Tsukuba, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Wakatsuki & Mariko Ueda

Authors
  1. Md. Hasan Imam
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  2. Chiaki T. Oguchi
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  3. Tsuyoshi Wakatsuki
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  4. Mariko Ueda
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Contributions

All authors have the contribution to develop the concept, framework and design for this study. Md. Hasan Imam (MHI) performed the material preparation, data collection and analysis. Chiaki T.Oguchi (CTO) and Tsuyoshi Wakatsuki (TW) supervised this research works. Mariko Ueda (MU) supported for the data collection and analysis. MHI wrote the first draft of this manuscript. CTO and TW helped to revise this manuscript and provided feedback. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Md. Hasan Imam.

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Imam, M.H., Oguchi, C.T., Wakatsuki, T. et al. Evaluating the effects of climate change on different stages of weathering in some granitic and granodioritic landslide prone areas of Japan. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-024-02026-y

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