Ok, landslides may be cool, but they can also be very tragic, so please don't pay much attention to the title. Anyway, there is a spectacular video of a landslide in Maierato, Italy. For more detailed info, head over to Dave's Landslide Blog, but the video is below.
Showing posts with label landslides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label landslides. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Monday, August 24, 2009
Field Trip to SR 87 Landslide
Hello from the beautiful (and HOT!) Phoenix. The Arizona Section held a field trip this August 15, 2009 in lieu of our regularly scheduled meeting. The group took the opportunity to get out of the heat and headed to north to the project site.
The project site, the State Route 87 (SR 87) Landslide, located between about 45 miles north of Phoenix in the Mazatzal Mountains near Rye, Arizona. The field trip was led by Pancho Garza, Arizona Section Vice Chair, and Wayne Harrison, Arizona Section member. In addition to their AEG affiliation, both are with AECOM, the engineering firm hired to investigate the landslide and develop emergency and long-term mitigation in response to the landslide.
The project has been a local news story of much local interest since March 21, 2008 when after a series of heavy precipitation events, a landslide in a cut slope buckled an adjacent portion of SR 87 resulting in a week-long closure of the highway. Immediately after the landslide, the Arizona Department of Transportation and their consultants conducted an initial assessment of the damage and possible causes. Aerial photogeologic reconnaissance and surficial geologic mapping guided an extensive subsurface investigation of the local slide and the much larger ancient landslide which consisted of test drilling and monitoring instrumentation installations. Monitoring and instrumentation included slope inclinometers, vibrating-wire piezometers, wire-extensometers, deformation surveys, and time-domain reflectometry (TDR).
The group totaling about 30 people included a mixture of professionals and students including attendees from all across the state. Everyone met up early Saturday morning before piling into two 15-passenger vans. The hour drive to the site was spent getting to know everyone, and discussing various geologic features along the way.
The project site is located at an elevation of approximately 4500 feet in the Mazatzal Mountains which are located within the Transition Zone Physiographic Province. The Transition Zone province is a very jumbled and extremely interesting geologic area that lies between the relatively flat uplifted Colorado Plateau province to the north and the tilted Basin and Range province to the south.
The field trip included three stops at various areas with the project site with the group leaders providing explanations to the group. The first stop allowed attendees to hike up on top of a dual-tiered set of soil nail walls to get a good view of the various project features including the head scarp of the ancient landslide structure in which the recent landslide occurred and the various cut slopes, buttresses, drainages, and instrumentation included in the investigation and mitigation. The second stop involved a 12-foot multi-plate with water dissipaters underneath an embankment buttress. The third and final stop was at a rock buttress within the landslide completed as part of the mitigation measures. Here site plans showing boring, instrumentation, and cross section locations and interpreted slide limits and cross sections showing the landslide and underlying geology were presented. Also, an up-close inspection of the instrumentation used in the on-going monitoring was presented.
After a quick lunch, the group piled back into the vans and headed back to Phoenix. The group arrived in the early afternoon where the weary travelers got into their vehicles and headed home, mostly to cool off and rest I think. Most of the attendees found the trip and presentation very interesting and suggested more field trips. Overall the trip was a great success!
For more information on the SR 87 Landslide project, be sure to catch the upcoming presentation at the AEG National conference in September. Upcoming Arizona Section events include our regular monthly meeting tentatively scheduled the week before the AEG Annual meeting (anyone visiting Arizona on vacation is encouraged to attend) our annual Holiday Meeting, and in early 2010, our fifth annual Student Night that will be held at the campus of Arizona State University.
The project site, the State Route 87 (SR 87) Landslide, located between about 45 miles north of Phoenix in the Mazatzal Mountains near Rye, Arizona. The field trip was led by Pancho Garza, Arizona Section Vice Chair, and Wayne Harrison, Arizona Section member. In addition to their AEG affiliation, both are with AECOM, the engineering firm hired to investigate the landslide and develop emergency and long-term mitigation in response to the landslide.
The project has been a local news story of much local interest since March 21, 2008 when after a series of heavy precipitation events, a landslide in a cut slope buckled an adjacent portion of SR 87 resulting in a week-long closure of the highway. Immediately after the landslide, the Arizona Department of Transportation and their consultants conducted an initial assessment of the damage and possible causes. Aerial photogeologic reconnaissance and surficial geologic mapping guided an extensive subsurface investigation of the local slide and the much larger ancient landslide which consisted of test drilling and monitoring instrumentation installations. Monitoring and instrumentation included slope inclinometers, vibrating-wire piezometers, wire-extensometers, deformation surveys, and time-domain reflectometry (TDR).
The group totaling about 30 people included a mixture of professionals and students including attendees from all across the state. Everyone met up early Saturday morning before piling into two 15-passenger vans. The hour drive to the site was spent getting to know everyone, and discussing various geologic features along the way.
The project site is located at an elevation of approximately 4500 feet in the Mazatzal Mountains which are located within the Transition Zone Physiographic Province. The Transition Zone province is a very jumbled and extremely interesting geologic area that lies between the relatively flat uplifted Colorado Plateau province to the north and the tilted Basin and Range province to the south.
The field trip included three stops at various areas with the project site with the group leaders providing explanations to the group. The first stop allowed attendees to hike up on top of a dual-tiered set of soil nail walls to get a good view of the various project features including the head scarp of the ancient landslide structure in which the recent landslide occurred and the various cut slopes, buttresses, drainages, and instrumentation included in the investigation and mitigation. The second stop involved a 12-foot multi-plate with water dissipaters underneath an embankment buttress. The third and final stop was at a rock buttress within the landslide completed as part of the mitigation measures. Here site plans showing boring, instrumentation, and cross section locations and interpreted slide limits and cross sections showing the landslide and underlying geology were presented. Also, an up-close inspection of the instrumentation used in the on-going monitoring was presented.
After a quick lunch, the group piled back into the vans and headed back to Phoenix. The group arrived in the early afternoon where the weary travelers got into their vehicles and headed home, mostly to cool off and rest I think. Most of the attendees found the trip and presentation very interesting and suggested more field trips. Overall the trip was a great success!
For more information on the SR 87 Landslide project, be sure to catch the upcoming presentation at the AEG National conference in September. Upcoming Arizona Section events include our regular monthly meeting tentatively scheduled the week before the AEG Annual meeting (anyone visiting Arizona on vacation is encouraged to attend) our annual Holiday Meeting, and in early 2010, our fifth annual Student Night that will be held at the campus of Arizona State University.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Field Trip - SR 87 Landslide
The Arizona Section of AEG is pleased to announce that the SR 87 Landslide Field Trip will be held on Saturday August 15, 2009. We will be meeting at the Bass Pro Shop located at 1133 North Dobson in Mesa at 8am. AEG will be providing transportation as well as soda and water. Pancho Garza, P.E. and Wayne Harrison, P.G. will be discussing the SR 87 landslide remedial repairs, investigation and monitoring.Please RSVP , Bonnie Whitley by Wednesday August 12th.
Hope to see you there!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Next Meeting - May 7th: SR 87 Landslide
The Arizona Section of AEG is pleased to announce that our next meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at Pizzeria Uno in Tempe. The hosted social hour begins at 6 PM (thanks to AECOM), dinner is usually around 7 PM and the talk will begin shortly after dinner. The presentation topic is "SR 87 Landslide Remedial Repairs, Investigation and Monitoring”
presented by Keith Dahlen, PE, and Wayne Harrison, PG. We are happy to have Wayne and Keith presenting on this project of great interest. Look out for future information on a follow-up field trip to the SR 87 landslide sometime this summer!
Please RSVP to Heather Hespeler, by replying to hhespeler@ninyoandmoore.com by Monday, May 4th.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
SR 87 Landslide Moving Again?
Interesting – ADOT is reporting movement at the SR 87 landslide. With a major winter storm, the associated moisture, and freeze thaw pressures, this isn’t really surprising. However, the question is will it become a major issue or not. And will it activate some of the other landslides in the area.
Monday, December 1, 2008
AZGS Report on the SR 87 Landslide
The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has released a preliminary report about the landslide that closed SR 87 between Phoenix and Payson last March. It's a short and informative report with some interesting findings - most notably the identification of 4 paleo-landslides in the area, and that part of one of those was reactivated to cause the road closure.
While it's still preliminary, we have scheduled the Aecom (formerly DMJM Harris) team to give us a presentation about the remediation of this landslide for our meeting on May 7, 2009.
"Reconnaissance Report on the Easter Weekend Landslide of 21 March 2008, SR-87, Gila County, Arizona." by M. Diaz, B. Gootee and A. Youberg
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Quake Lakes in China
Last month’s big earthquake in China caused a number of large landslides that created dams in the region’s many rivers. The largest of these lakes is at Tangjiashan and has been in danger of catastrophic failure for some time. The Chinese military mobilized a large work crew to excavate a spillway in an attempt to avert a catastrophic failure.
Dave’s Landslide Blog has covered in all the detail available to the West the efforts of the Chinese to stop this disaster and the status of the lake. Last night critical reservoir elevations were reached and flow in the hastily constructed spillway began to increase exponentially as the spillway began to erode. However, the resulting discharge has not been as large as it could and the disaster of a catastrophic failure appears to have been averted and thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives at risk have been saved. This article indicates that one of the ways the Chinese chose to avert this disaster is was to channel the flood waters through an abandoned town that was completely destroyed by the quake. It's a hard choice to make, but hard choice need to be made when lives are at stake. Anyway, it’s an interesting story to follow.
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