ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geohazards and Georisks
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1621953
This article is part of the Research TopicMonitoring, Early Warning and Mitigation of Natural and Engineered Slopes – Volume VView all 4 articles
Multi-Factor Coupling Effects on Creep Mechanisms of the Suoertou Landslide: Insights from 3D Numerical Modeling and Field Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China
- 2chang an university, Xian, China
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This study explores the deformation mechanisms of the Suoertou creep-type landslide in Zhouqu County, Gansu Province, under the combined effects of rainfall, seismic activity, and fault movement. Using FLAC3D-based three-dimensional modeling integrated with borehole data and geotechnical testing, we analyze the landslide's progressive failure process.The results show that: (1) Rainfall exceeding 0.7 mm/h triggers rapid formation of sliding zones, reducing the safety factor by 17.3%; (2) Seismic shaking causes large-scale deformation, with displacement in the rear section reaching 2.1 times that at the front; (3) Long-term tectonic stress from the Pingding-Huama fault zone (0.12 MPa/year) weakens slope stability through sustained compressive-shear motion.These factors interact nonlinearly: rainfall softens the slip zone, seismic loading accelerates movement, and fault activity reshapes the long-term stress field. The landslide exhibits a composite failure mode with frontal extension, central locking, and rear compression.This study provides a theoretical basis for understanding multi-factor landslide triggers and offers insights for risk assessment in seismically active mountain regions.
Keywords: Suoertou landslide, numerical simulation, rainfall, earthquake, Fault activity, multi-physics coupling；Creep Mechanism
Received: 02 May 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lu, Wang and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zuopeng Wang, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China
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