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Abstract

Summary

In tectonically active areas, landslide deposits may become buried by sedimentation related to ongoing tectonics. It can be important to identify these deposits to help evaluate landslide recurrence. Additionally, increased porosity and permeability can make landslide deposits attractive as targets for geothermal, hydrocarbon, and/or metal exploration. However, as landslide deposits are buried it becomes difficult to identify them. Well penetrations can be used, but are expensive. In this study, we tested the Deep ReMi (Refraction Microtremor) seismic method as a potential method for inexpensively and rapidly identifying landslide deposits in the subsurface.

ReMi is a method to evaluate the subsurface shear wave velocity profile by utilizing data collected by and geophone array with passive sources. We evaluated the efficacy of Deep ReMi in identifying landslide deposits by deploying two 2-km, 99-geophone arrays in Washoe Valley, Nevada, USA. One array was deployed across the toe of the Slide Mountain landslide complex and a second array away from known landslide deposits. The landslide complex array showed lateral heterogeneity in Vs velocity inversions in the upper 50–100 m not observed in the second array. The heterogeneity is interpreted to represent landslide deposits with faster velocities from areas with larger average clast size.

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/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.2025520028
2025-09-15
2026-01-24
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References

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