A massive sensitive clay landslide, Quyon Valley, southwestern Quebec, Canada, and evidence for a paleoearthquake triggering mechanism

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory R. Brooks

A landslide debris field covering ~ 31 km2, the presence of large sediment blocks up to hundreds of meters long, and the exposure of deposits of a single landslide along the incised course of the Quyon River are evidence of a massive failure of sensitive Champlain Sea glaciomarine sediments along the lower Quyon Valley, southwestern Quebec, Canada. Seventeen radiocarbon ages indicate that the failure occurred between 980 and 1060 cal yr BP. Twenty-four additional radiocarbon ages reveal that nine landslides within a 65-km belt in the Quyon"Ottawa area also occurred at approximately this time. In combination, the contemporaneous occurrence of ten landslides between 980 and 1060 cal yr BP, the setting or morphology of five of the other failures, and the close proximity of two of the failures to the Quyon Valley landslide provide circumstantial evidence of a paleoearthquake-triggering mechanism. The paleoearthquake is estimated to be Mw ~ 6.1 or larger, with the epicenter within the West Quebec Seismic Zone. A common earthquake-triggering mechanism for the three largest landslides in eastern Canada suggests a close link between massive failures of sensitive glaciomarine sediments and the regional seismicity.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba M. Rodriguez Padilla ◽  
◽  
John Onwuemeka ◽  
John Onwuemeka ◽  
Yajing Liu ◽  
...  

1983 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 813-829
Author(s):  
P. Yi-Fa Huang ◽  
N. N. Biswas

abstract This paper describes the characteristics of the Rampart seismic zone by means of the aftershock sequence of the Rampart earthquake (ML = 6.8) which occurred in central Alaska on 29 October 1968. The magnitudes of the aftershocks ranged from about 1.6 to 4.4 which yielded a b value of 0.96 ± 0.09. The locations of the aftershocks outline a NNE-SSW trending aftershock zone about 50 km long which coincides with the offset of the Kaltag fault from the Victoria Creek fault. The rupture zone dips steeply (≈80°) to the west and extends from the surface to a depth of about 10 km. Fault plane solutions for a group of selected aftershocks, which occurred over a period of 22 days after the main shock, show simultaneous occurrences of strike-slip and normal faults. A comparison of the trends in seismicity between the neighboring areas shows that the Rampart seismic zone lies outside the area of underthrusting of the lithospheric plate in southcentral and central Alaska. The seismic zone outlined by the aftershock sequence appears to represent the formation of an intraplate fracture caused by regional northwest compression.


Antiquity ◽  
1931 ◽  
Vol 5 (19) ◽  
pp. 351-354
Author(s):  
W. Percy Hedley

The Roman Fort of Borcovicium at Housesteads in Northumberland should need no introduction to anyone interested in archaeology. During the last year it has been brought into great prominence by being presented to the Nation by Mr John Maurice Clayton, and through its close proximity to the portion of Hadrian’s Wall recently threatened by quarrying operations.The fort at Housesteads was one of the earliest to be examined by British antiquaries, but although it has received so much attention its environs have been almost entirely disregarded. On both sides of the Military Way leading out of the west gateway was an extensive civil settlement, and traces of buildings can be seen on the south side of the fort. The hillside sloping to the southward is covered with the remains of early cultivations. These have generally been accepted as of Romano-British age. There are, however, two distinct systems of early cultivation. To the southwest of the fort there is a series of terraces running along the hillside, but on the southeast of the fort there are lynchets running north and south at regular interva up and down the hillside. From the hill to the south of Housesteads it can be clearly seen that where there is terrace cultivation it has been superimposed on the earlier system of lynchets, and this is also shown in air photographs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 744-746 ◽  
pp. 464-469
Author(s):  
Hong Gang Wu ◽  
Tao Yang ◽  
Xiao Yun Chen ◽  
Hui Min Ma ◽  
Hong Li Zhang ◽  
...  

Due to the earthquake of Yushu in April 14, 2010, Airport Road landslide No.3 deformed cracking, resulting in lower stability of slope, triggering landslides and other diseases. Selecting the section 2-2 (mileage K823 + 809) of Airport Road landslide No.3 as the calculation section, we use the ABAQUS finite element program to establish landslide numerical mode. The slip mass of landslide was simulated by the elastic-plastic damage constitutive model, and the bedrock was analyzed as Mohr - Coulomb constitutive model. Landslide No3 is analyzed for example, and showed that earthquake triggering mechanism elastplastic damage constitutive model can describe the landslide very well.


1987 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 777-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
GERALD A. MULLIGAN ◽  
DEREK B. MUNRO

This paper provides a summary of biological data on Veratrum viride Ait., false hellebore. It is a herbaceous perennial, native to wet habitats in North America. Subspecies viride occurs primarily in eastern Canada and subspecies eschscholtzii (A. Gray) Löve and Löve in the west. Both subspecies have the chromosome number of n = 16, 2n = 32. Ingested material of false hellebore is poisonous to humans and livestock.Key words: False hellebore, Veratrum viride Ait., weed biology


1914 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 399-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. S. Watson ◽  
G. Hickling

Summary.—(1) The reptiles Gordonia, Geikia, and Elginia are shown to be slightly later than those of the Upper Permian Pariasaurus beds of Russia, or those of the equivalent Cisticephalus zone of South Africa. They therefore represent the extreme top of the Permian. (2) The remaining Elgin reptiles are Middle Triassic (? = Lettenkohle of Germany). (3) The Elgin footprints are widely distinct from Triassic forms and from those of the Lower Permian, while agreeing exactly with the group associated with the Magnesian Limestone of England. They therefore represent the extreme top of the Permian. (4) The discovery is recorded of one of the typical footprints in close proximity with the Permian reptile quarry. (5) The Permian rocks occupy the west of the ‘Triassic’ area, the true Trias the east. (6) It is suggested that the area was a landsurface during Permian and Triassic times.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Revathy M. Parameswaran ◽  
Ingi Th. Bjarnason ◽  
Freysteinn Sigmundsson

<p>The Reykjanes Peninsula (RP) is a transtensional plate boundary in southwest Iceland that marks the transition of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) from the offshore divergent Reykjanes Ridge (RR) in the west to the South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ) in the east. The seismicity here trends ~N80°E in central RP and bends to ~N45°E at its western tip as it joins RR. Seismic surveys, geodetic studies, and recent GPS-based kinematic models indicate that the seismic zone is a collection of strike-slip and normal faults (e.g., Keiding et al., 2008). Meanwhile, the tectonic processes in the region also manifest as NE-SW trending volcanic fissures and normal faults, and N-S oriented dextral faults (e.g., Clifton and Kattenhorn, 2006). The largest of these fissure and normal-fault systems in RP is the Krísuvík-Trölladyngja volcanic system, which is a high-energy geothermal zone. The seismicity here predominantly manifests RP’s transtentional tectonics; however, also hosts triggered events such as those following the 17 June 2000 Mw6.5 earthquake in the SISZ (Árnadottir et al., 2004) ~80 km east of Krísuvík. Stress inversions of microearthquakes from 1997-2006 in the RP indicate that the current stress state is mostly strike-slip with increased normal component to the west, indicating that the seismicity is driven by plate diverging motion (Keiding et al., 2009). However, the geothermal system in Krísuvík is a potential secondary source for triggered seismicity and deformation. This study uses seismic and geodetic data to evaluate the activity in the Krísuvík-Trölladyngja volcanic system. The seismic data is used to identify specific areas of focused activity and evaluate variations in the stress field associated with plate motion and/or geothermal activity over space and time. The data used, within the time period 2007-2016, was collected by the the South Icelandic Lowland (SIL) seismic network operated and managed by the Iceland Meterological Office (IMO). Furthermore, variations in seismicity are compared to crustal deformation observed with TerraSAR-X images from 2009-2019. Crustal changes in the Krísuvík area are quantified to develop a model for corresponding deformation sources. These changes are then correlated with the stress-field variations determined with seismic analysis.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Barker ◽  
Alan Phear ◽  
François Côté ◽  
David Garcia Cueto

The Champlain Sea Basin in eastern Canada is known for its sensitive clay and associated engineering problems through this much-developed area along the St Lawrence River. Geologically, the surface of the Champlain clay has been subjected to desiccation, frost action, and weathering. This has resulted in the reduction of the water content and sensitivity of the surficial crust layer of this very wet clay deposit sufficiently to enable it to be used as an earthworks material. However, the material is still much wetter than its optimum moisture content. By co-operative value engineering, the team on the Nouvelle Autoroute 30 project in Montréal, Quebec, investigated and achieved moisture content and degree of compaction derogations to the Ministry of Transport, Quebec specification. This allowed the successful construction of many low and high road embankments using an unprecedented 2.3 × 106 m3 of this weathered Champlain clay crust material. This paper describes how the design and construction issues associated with using this material for earthworks were evaluated and addressed.


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