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Combined impacts of antecedent earthquakes and droughts on disastrous debris flows

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Abstract

This paper describes a study on the combined impacts of antecedent earthquakes and droughts on disastrous debris flows. This is a novel attempt in quantifying such impacts using the effective peak acceleration (EPA) (to represent earthquakes) and standardized precipitation index (SPI) (to represent droughts). The study is based on the analysis of 116 disastrous debris flow events occurred in Mainland China in the last 100 years covering a wide spectrum of climate types and landforms. It has been found that the combined impacts from earthquakes and droughts on disastrous debris flows do exist and vary from low to very high according to different climate conditions and terrains. The impacts from earthquakes increase with the increased terrain relief, and the impacts from droughts are strongest in semi-humid climate condition (with reduced impacts in humid and semi-arid /arid climate conditions). Hypothetical explanations on the study discoveries have been proposed. This study reveals the possible reasons for the disastrous debris flow distributions around the world and has significant implications in paleo-climate-seismic analysis and disastrous debris flow risk management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Processes, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Ning-sheng Chen & Ming-feng Deng

  2. Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, 430010, China

    Yang Lu

  3. Sichuan Provincial Transport Department Highway Planning, Survey, Design and Research Institute, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Hai-bo Zhou

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TR, UK

    Da-wei Han

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  1. Ning-sheng Chen
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  2. Yang Lu
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Correspondence to Ning-sheng Chen.

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Chen, Ns., Lu, Y., Zhou, Hb. et al. Combined impacts of antecedent earthquakes and droughts on disastrous debris flows. J. Mt. Sci. 11, 1507–1520 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-014-3080-7

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