Landslides in Sensitive Clays: From Research to Implementation (Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research Book 46)

This book gathers the most recent scientific research on the geological, geotechnical and geophysical aspects of slope failure in sensitive clays. Gathering contributions by international experts, it focuses on understanding the complete and practical spectrum of challenges presented by landslides in such complex materials. Based on sound and validated research results, the book also presents several recommendations that could be implemented in the guidelines or code-of-practice. These recommendations cover topics including the characterization and behavior of sensitive clays; the pre-failure, failure and post-failure stages of sensitive clays; mapping and identification methods; climate change; hazard assessment; and risk management. Sensitive clays are known for their potential for causing large landslides, which pose a serious risk to human lives, infrastructure, and surrounding ecosystems within their reach. This has been demonstrated by the recent catastrophic landslides in e.g. Sørum (2016), Skjeggestad (2015), Statland (2014), Byneset (2012), St-Jude (2010), Lyngen (2010) and Kattmarka (2009). The 2015 collapse of the Skjeggestad Bridge in Norway – which was due to a landslide in sensitive clay – alone costs millions of dollars in repairs. Recently, efforts are being made to increase society’s ability to cope with such landslide hazards. Geoscientists are now expected to provide input to the agencies responsible for landslide-risk preparedness. In other words, geoscientists’ role is not only to act as technologists to establish new theories, but also to go the extra mile to implement them in practice, so as to find meaningful solutions to geotechnical problems. Front Matter....Pages i-xix Landslide in Sensitive Clays – From Research to Implementation....Pages 1-11 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Sensitive Clays of Eastern Canada: From Geology to Slope Stability....Pages 15-34 Chemistry: An Essential Key to Understanding High-Sensitivity and Quick Clays and to Addressing Landslide Risk....Pages 35-44 Improving the Post-failure Properties in Quick Clays by Treatment with Potassium Chloride....Pages 45-55 CPTU Classification Diagrams for Identification of Sensitive Clays....Pages 57-66 Relationships Between Shear Wave Velocity and Geotechnical Parameters for Norwegian and Swedish Sensitive Clays....Pages 67-76 Geophysical and Geotechnical Characterization of a Sensitive Clay Deposit in Brownsburg, Quebec....Pages 77-86 Investigating How the Changes in Geotechnical Properties of Sensitive Clays Influence Their Geophysical Properties....Pages 87-96 Determination of Remoulding Energy of Sensitive Clays....Pages 97-107 Problems Related to Field Vane Testing in Soft Soil Conditions and Improved Reliability of Measurements Using an Innovative Field Vane Device....Pages 109-119 A New Laboratory Procedure to Study Stress Relief in Soil Samples....Pages 121-131 Sample Disturbance in Deep Clay Samples....Pages 133-143 Effects of Sample Disturbance in the Determination of Soil Parameters for Advanced Finite Element Modelling of Sensitive Clays....Pages 145-154 Viscometric Tests of Sensitive Clay from Byneset, Norway, and Fit to the Herschel–Bulkley Model....Pages 155-166 Dynamic Properties of a Sensitive Clay Deposit....Pages 167-176 Front Matter....Pages 177-177 The Role of Instability and Shear Band Localisation in Triggering Landslides in Sensitive Clays....Pages 179-190 Vibratory Roller Influence Zone Near Slopes with Vibration Susceptible Soils....Pages 191-201 Bayesian Updating of Uncertainties in the Stability Analysis of Natural Slopes in Sensitive Clays....Pages 203-212 Potential Landsliding at the North Spur, Churchill River Valley....Pages 213-223 Correction Factors for Undrained LE Analyses of Sensitive Clays....Pages 225-235 Front Matter....Pages 177-177 Advances in Determining Δu and su for Limit Equilibrium Analyses....Pages 237-247 Recommended Practice for the Use of Strength Anisotropy Factors in Stability Calculations....Pages 249-258 On the Benefits of Incorporating Anisotropy in Stability Analyses in Sensitive Clays....Pages 259-266 Development and Application of a Regional Slope Stability Assessment Screening Tool....Pages 267-276 Front Matter....Pages 277-277 The Use of LiDAR Airborne Data for Retrogressive Landslides Inventory in Sensitive Clays, Québec, Canada....Pages 279-288 Runout of Landslides in Sensitive Clays....Pages 289-300 Parametric Analysis of the Mobility of Debris from Flow Slides in Sensitive Clays....Pages 301-310 Mapping Quick Clay Hazard Zones: Comparison of Methods for the Estimation of the Retrogression Distance....Pages 311-321 Modelling of the Quickness Test of Sensitive Clays Using the Generalized Interpolation Material Point Method....Pages 323-336 Back-calculation of the Byneset Flow Slide Using the Voellmy Rheology....Pages 337-346 Effect of Strain Softening Behaviours on Run-Out Distance of a Sensitive Clay Landslide....Pages 347-357 Front Matter....Pages 359-359 The 1908 Disaster of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, Québec, Canada: Analysis of the Landslide and Tsunami....Pages 361-371 Fv. 287 Strandgata: Kjøreplass bru. Road Construction in Quick Clay....Pages 373-382 Case Study: Characterization of a Thick Sensitive Clay Deposit in the St. Lawrence River Valley, Slope Stability Analysis and Preliminary Assessment of Permanent Deformations....Pages 383-394 Revisiting the 1959 Quick Clay Landslide at Sokkelvik, Norway....Pages 395-405 Geotechnical Evaluation of a Quick Clay Area in Trondheim, Norway....Pages 407-416 Saguenay Risk Management....Pages 417-427 Front Matter....Pages 429-429 Development of a Methodology for Quick Clay Mapping....Pages 431-441 Helicopter Electromagnetic Scanning as a First Step in Regional Quick Clay Mapping....Pages 443-452 Developments in Mapping and Web Presentation of Fjord-Marine Deposit Distributions for Quick-Clay Related Work in Norway....Pages 453-462 Front Matter....Pages 429-429 Analysis of Ground Geophysical, Airborne TEM, and Geotechnical Data for Mapping Quick Clays in Sweden....Pages 463-474 Investigation of a Sensitive Clay Landslide Area Using Frequency-Domain Helicopter-Borne EM and Ground Geophysical Methods....Pages 475-485 The Norwegian National Database for Ground Investigations (NADAG): A Tool to Assist in Landslide Hazard Zonation and Other Quick-Clay Related Issues....Pages 487-495 Future Strategy for Soil Investigations in Quick Clay Areas....Pages 497-507 Front Matter....Pages 509-509 Reliability of Slopes in Sensitive Clays....Pages 511-537 Natural Hazards in a Changing Climate in Norway....Pages 539-547 Development of a Long Term Monitoring Network of Sensitive Clay Slopes in Québec in the Context of Climate Change....Pages 549-558 Practicing Hazard Mitigation Strategies for a Construction on a Sensitive Clay Slope....Pages 559-569 Mapping of Landslide Risks in a Changing Climate – Development of Simplified Methodology....Pages 571-580 Quick-Clay Hazard Mapping in Norway....Pages 581-591 Back Matter....Pages 593-603 Landslides in sensitive clays represent a major hazard in the northern countries of the world such as Canada, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and in the US state of Alaska. Past and recent examples of catastrophic landslides at e.g. Saint-Jean-Vianney in 1971, Rissa in 1979, Finneidfjord in 1996 and Kattmarka in 2009 have illustrated the great mobility of the remolded sensitive clays and their hazardous retrogressive potential. These events call for a better understanding of landslide in sensitive clay terrain to assist authorities with state-of-the-art hazard assessment methods, risk management schemes, mitigation measures and planning. During the last decades the elevated awareness regarding slope movement in sensitive clays has led to major advances in mapping techniques and development of highly sophisticated geotechnical and geophysical investigation tools. Great advances in numerical techniques dealing with progressive failure and landslide kinematic have also lead to increase understanding and predictability of landslides in sensitive clays and their consequences. This volume consists of the latest scientific research by international experts dealing with geological, geotechnical and geophysical aspects of slope failure in sensitive clays and focuses on understanding the full spectrum of challenges presented by landslides in such brittle materials.