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Assessing massive flank collapse at stratovolcanoes using 3-D slope stability analysis

NATO Science Series
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4037-5_24

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Abstract

Massive rock failures pose one of the greatest hazards at stratovolcanoes; more than 20,000 fatalities have resulted worldwide from historical volcano edifice collapses. Although numerous processes can destabilize an edifice, gravitational instability is strongly influenced by the interplay of topography, variable potential failure surfaces, and the three-dimensional (3-D) distributions of rock strength and pore-fluid pressure. We have developed a 3-D slope stability analysis that can search digital topography and determine the locations of minimum stability and the volumes of potential failures. We use this 3-D method to conduct preliminary stability analyses of three stratovolcanoes that have had large rock failures: Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier in the USA and Volcan Casita in Nicaragua. For the relatively uniform Mount St. Helens edifice, a 3-D analysis using topography alone provides a good predictor of the location and volume of the catastrophic 1980 collapse. At Mount Rainier, both topography and a 3-D distribution of weaker, hydrothermally altered rocks are needed to adequately characterize future hazard. For Casita, the location of the smaller, yet devastating, 1998 failure is predicted using topography and a reconnaissance interpretation of strength based on the distribution of fumarolic activity.

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Assessing massive flank collapse at stratovolcanoes using 3-D slope stability analysis
Series title NATO Science Series
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-4037-5_24
Volume 49
Year Published 2006
Language English
Publisher Springer
Description 14 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Title Landslides from Massive Rock Slope Failure
First page 445
Last page 458
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