Slope Process and Slope Stability Flashcards
What was Canada’s worst natural disaster?
- Frank Slide
- 1903
- 82 million tonnes of limestone
- Killed approx. 70 people in mining town of Frank
Objectives of slope processes
- Conceptualize slopes as systems where downslope forces move earth surface materials
- Review common features (Slides, flows, falls, spreads, creep) and classification schemes (morphological and rheological
- Expand with case study examples, discuss hazards and risks
- Discuss important morphometrics and indicators used to interpret activity
How do landscape materials get from mountain tops to valley floors?
- slope processes and mass wasting
Why are submarine failures of importance for terrestrial habitats?
- underwater displacement can cause tsunami’s
- infrastructure on deltas and other marine envrs
Frequency-magnitude relations
- Moderately sized transport events do the most geo work in the landscape as a consequence of the frequency of moderate sized events
What are 2 big factors for geomorphic work/potential damage?
- How bit is it
- How often does it happen
- i.e. Frequency-magnitude relationship
What affects the angle of internal friction for granular materials?
- Surface roughness
- Packing
- Grain shape
When is the angle of internal friction higher?
- Closer packing
- Grains of different sizes
- Angular grains
When is the angle of internal friction lower?
- Open packing
- Uniform particle sizes
= fewer points of contact for friction
Cohesion
- How well things stick together
- Rootlets, electro-static bonds in clays, cementing agents (salt oxides)
Internal Friction
- Planar friction angle
- Mechanical (bulk) resistance of grain-grain contact
- f (grain size, shape, sorting, compaction)
- Controls Stress in unconsolidated deposits, Failure when > than angle of internal friction
What are 2 measures that control rheological responses?
- Angle of repose
- Angle of sliding friction
Angle of repose
- Angle of rest of dry sediment (25 - 40 degrees)
- Static, stationary, friction
Angle of sliding friction
- Angle at which sediment fails
- up to 10 degrees > angle of repose
- Dynamic friction threshold
What is the primary driving force in the landscape?
- Gravity
On a slope, what is the Force of gravity (Fg) divided into?
2 vectors:
- Downslope component
- Normal component
What is the frictional force proportional to?
- frictional is proportional to normal force
- friction decreases as slope increases,
- Down slope gravitational component increase when slope increases and normal force decreases
What is the main thing slope failure is dependent on?
Slope!
What is the driving force?
- Shear stress
- Derived from soil bulk density, gravitational acceleration, and soil depth
What is the specific weight of the soil?
- soil bulk density x gravitational acceleration
What is the resistance to shear stress expressed by?
the Mohr-Coulomb eqn.
- Describes the ability of material to resist sliding
What does Soil strength depend on?
- Soil cohesion
- Normal force
- Pore water pressure
- Coefficient of friction
Angle of internal friction
- phi
- angle where shear failure occurs
- can be estimated in the field (driving a probe into the ground)
What is the normal force?
- imposed by the weight of the solids and water above a particular point in the soil and resists downhill movement
- Force per unit area
- Frictional resistance on the sliding plane
What does high pore water pressure do to the normal force?
- reduces normal force and the frictional strength of soil
- Forces the particles apart and reduces the friction
What is the difference between Phi and Theta?
- Phi is the angle where shear failure occurs
- Theta is the slope angle
- They are not the same thing
How is the Soil (Shear) Strength, S, calculated?
S = soil cohesion plus [(normal force per unit area - pore water pressure) x tan of the angle of internal friction]
What is Cohesion caused by?
- Chemical bonding and electrostatic attraction between particles of soil, not simply compressive forces (squeeze sand together and nothing happens)
- roots or inter-particle bonds
What holds soils with lots of organic matter together?
- roots can physically hold soils together
What happens in silts and clays that generally don’t chemically bond to each other?
- electrostatic forces due to the effects of capillary water between oil particles can provide a bond
- Clays which are charged are cohesive and stick together
How is pore water pressure calculated?
- It is the product of slope normal component of the bulk water density, gravity, and soil thickness, and cos of slope angle
- High pore water pressure decreases soil strength
- Measured in units of pressure, Newtons per square meter
Can pore water pressure be mitigated?
- Yes
- ex. Drains to capture moisture and reduce pressure
Factor of Safety
- Describes the stability of a slope
- Ratio between forces resisting and driving movement
- Fs = 1 forces balanced, threshold for instability
- Fs > 1 (Strength > stress) = Stable
- Fs < 1 (S
Factor of Safety for a dry soil with no cohesion
- dry = no water pressure
- no cohesion = no clay
- The resisting force is the soil strength from the coulomb eqn and the driving force is shear stress
- Soil Density includes only the weight of soil particles which occupy 60 percent of the total volume (1590kg/m^3)
Factor of Safety for a dry soil with cohesion
- dry = no water pressure
- cohesion = clay
- Soil density remains the same (1600kg/m^3)
Factor of Safety for a wet soil with cohesion
- wet = water pressure
- cohesion = clay
- Soil density includes weight of the soil particles and the water in the pore spaces (2050kg/m^3)
What happens to the Fs if slope increases
- denominator (stress) becomes large
- Fs decreases
What happens to Fs if a wet soil loses moisture?
- numerator (strength) becomes large
- FS increases
What happens to Fs if a slope is logged?
- cohesion decreases
- numerator (strength) becomes smaller
- Fs decreases
What happens to Fs if a soil thickness is increased?
- denominator (stress) gets larger proportionally to numerator (strength)
- Fs decreases
- But balances out with cohesion present
External Factors that Increase Shear Stress
- Removal of support (erosion, human activity i.e. road cuts etc)
- Addition of mass (Natural i.e. talus/rain, or Human i.e. fills, buildings etc.)
- Earthquakes
- Regional tilting
- Removal of underlying support (undercutting, solution etc or human i.e. mining)
- Lateral pressure (Natural swelling, expansion, water addition)
Internal factors that decrease Shear Strength
- Weathering and physicochemical reactions (lowers cohesion):
- Disintegration (lowers cohesion)
- Hydration (lowers cohesion)
- Base exchange
- Solution
- Drying
- Pore water (Buoyancy, Capillary tension)
- Structural Changes (Remolding, Fracturing)
What do internal factors that control slope failure tend to do?
Decrease Shear Strength
What do External factors that control slope failure tend to do?
Increase Shear Stress
How do slopes achieve stability?
Through failure
Dalrymple 1968
- 9 slope elements described by geomorphology and dominant transport processes and pathways
- Provided a simple way to describe and map slopes to show down slope variation
- Reality rarely has all 9 components
- Stable profile while unstable shows steps and irregular features
9 Slope elements
- Interfluve
- Seepage slope
- Convex creep slope
- Fall face
- Transportational midslope
- Colluvial footslope
- Alluvial toeslope
- Channel wall
- Channel bed
Interfluve
Pedogenetic processes associated with vertical subsurface soil water movement
- Modal slope angle 0 - 1 degrees
Seepage Slope
Mechanical and chemical elevation by lateral subsurface water movement
- Modal slope angle 2 - 4 degrees
Convex Creep Slope
Soil cree, terracette formation
Fall Face
- Fall, slide, chemical and physical weathering
- minimum angle 45 degrees but normally over 65
Transportational midslope
- Transportation of material by mass movement (flow, slide, slump, creep), terracotta formation, surface and subsurface water action
- Frequently occurring at 26 to 35 degree slope angles