Remarks on the mechanics of slow active landslides and the interaction with man-made works

摘要

Slow active landslides include mainly translational slides and mudslides in stiff clay and clay shale, and large slope movements, such as deep seated slides and lateral spreads in any sort of material. The paper reports some considerations about the mechanics of them, showing that movement is induced by continuous changes of the internal effective stress field caused by pore pressure fluctuations and erosion, but also by time-depending soil properties or weakening. The role of pore pressure fluctuations prevails in the case of slides of moderate thickness, while creep and erosion, as other geological phenomena of stress relief, are the main factors (hat drive movements of deep seated landslides and lateral spreads. The same factors govern the interaction with man-made woks. The main concerned engineering problem is to assess whether living with landslides is possible, through the analysis of future trends of movement and effects on structures and lifelines.