Effects of earthquake and cyclone sequencing on landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in a mountain catchment

Lin, Guan-Wei; Chen, Hongey; Hovius, Niels; Horng, Ming-Jame; Dadson, Simon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6144-4639; Meunier, Patrick; Lines, Max. 2008 Effects of earthquake and cyclone sequencing on landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in a mountain catchment [in special issue: Geomorphology and earth system science] Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33 (9). 1354-1373. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.1716

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Abstract/Summary

Patterns and rates of landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in mountain catchments are determined by the strength and location of rain storms and earthquakes, and by the sequence in which they occur. To explore this notion, landslides caused by three tropical cyclones and a very large earthquake have been mapped in the Chenyoulan catchment in the Taiwan Central Range, where water and sediment discharges and rock strengths are well known. Prior to the MW 7·6 Chi-Chi earthquake in 1999, storm-driven landslide rates were modest. Landslides occurred primarily low within the landscape in shallow slopes, reworking older colluvial material. The Chi-Chi earthquake caused wide-spread landsliding in the steepest bedrock slopes high within the catchment due to topographic focusing of incoming seismic waves. After the earthquake landslide rates remained elevated, landslide patterns closely tracking the distribution of coseismic landslides. These patterns have not been strongly affected by rock strength. Sediment loads of the Chenyoulan River have been limited by supply from hillslopes. Prior to the Chi-Chi earthquake, the erosion budget was dominated by one exceptionally large flood, with anomalously high sediment concentrations, caused by typhoon Herb in 1996. Sediment concentrations were much higher than normal in intermediate size floods during the first 5 years after the earthquake, giving high sediment yields. In 2005, sediment concentrations had decreased to values prevalent before 1999. The hillslope response to the Chi-Chi earthquake has been much stronger than the five-fold increase of fluvial sediment loads and concentrations, but since the earthquake, hillslope sediment sources have become increasingly disconnected from the channel system, with 90 per cent of landslides not reaching into channels. Downslope advection of landslide debris associated with the Chi-Chi earthquake is driven by the impact of tropical cyclones, but occurs on a time-scale longer than this study. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.1716
Programmes:	CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Water > WA01 Water extremes > WA01.1 New methodologies to quantify floods, flows and droughts CEH Programmes pre-2009 publications > Ecology & Hydrology Funding Initiative (EHFI)
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Harding (to July 2011)
ISSN:	0197-9337
Additional Keywords:	Landsliding, fluvial sediment transfer, tropical cyclone, earthquake, event sequencing
NORA Subject Terms:	Meteorology and Climatology Hydrology Earth Sciences
Date made live:	02 Mar 2009 15:48 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/6294

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