Continuous Assessment of the Response of Deep-Seated Landslides by Monitoring Basal Temperature (CoRDeaL)

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Deep-seated landslides represent one of the most devastating natural hazards on earth, typically creeping at inappreciable velocities over several years, before suddenly collapsing often with high velocity movement and catastrophic results. They can have detrimental consequences to society, as they involve large-scale collapse, causing fatalities and often affecting transportation infrastructure. Notable examples of such catastrophic failures include, among others, the 1963 Vaiont landslide in Italy, which devastated an entire valley causing around 2000 casualties and rendering inactive the largest hydro-electric dam of Italy, the 1999 Jiufengershan Landslide in Taiwan and the 2014 Oso landslide in the U.S. What determines the stability of these landslides and the time of final collapse remains a key problem in landslide mechanics and natural hazard prediction and prevention. This project will investigate the physical processes that are thought to drive deep-seated landslides to catastrophic collapse, particularly focusing on whether the response of these landslides can be continuously assessed by monitoring the temperature of the sliding surface. This project will assess potential for failure plane temperature to affect stability, and collect in-situ temperature data. It will focus on testing the hypothesis that the response of deep-seated landslides can be continuously assessed by enriching models with the material's thermal response, and monitoring the temperature of the sliding surface. This is envisioned to be achieved by combining theoretical and numerical approaches, experiments on material from an active landslide in Andorra, Europe, together with field data of displacement, piezometric level and temperature at the base of the landslide. The project aims at offering unique and transformative knowledge and technology on how deep-seated landslides would respond in long-term, multi-physical loading (i.e. including elevated temperatures, pressures, and deformation rates). The long-term objectives of this work would be to quantify the dominant processes driving deep-seated landslides to instability, and develop an operational protocol for this type of hazard. It is, therefore, envisioned that the outcomes of this pilot project could fuel a new approach in modeling, monitoring and assessing deep-seated landslides.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.