EVALUATION OF MECHANISM OF EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED LANDSLIDES BY ADVANCED RING-SHEAR APPARATUS  

Dmitri A. Vankov and Kyoji Sassa
DPRI, Kyoto University, Japan
E-mail: mitrich@landslide.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Landslides triggered by earthquakes occurs in seismically active regions in the world and causes numerous casualties. The Nikawa Landslide induced by the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake on 1995.01.17 in Japan killed 34 people. Despite significant progress achieved during last decades in the field of prediction and mitigation of landslide risk, scientists are not able to cope with earthquake-induced landslides because: a) time of tremor itself couldn't be predicted and b) mechanism of initiation of such landslides is different from conventional landslides.

In order to investigate the latter factor, new and advanced type of ring-shear apparatus was developed by second author with colleagues. The using of this device provides unique possibilities for researcher to carry out complicated experiments with various schemes of loading and parameters measuring. Based on the results of tests conducted by new ring-shear apparatus several new phenomenon were observed and certain progress in evaluating of seismic-induced landslide was reached.