Far-field coseismic forcing of giant rockslides in the 2017 Sarpol-Zahab
Earthquake (Iran)
Abstract
On November 12th 2017, the largest earthquake (Mw 7.3) ever recorded in
the Zagros mountains occurred near the town of Sarpol-Zahab, Iran. While
this region encompasses clusters of giant ancient rockslides, this
seismic event is an excellent case-study to decipher the controlling
factors of earthquake-induced landslides. Here, we address this issue by
deriving an original earthquake-induced landslide inventory,
encompassing landslides of various velocities (from rapid rockfalls to
slow-moving landslides). This inventory displays clear differences in
the spatial and volumetric distributions of earthquake-induced
landslides, with 360 rockfalls triggered around the epicenter, and 9
giant active and ancient rockslides coseismically accelerated at
locations up to 180 km from the epicenter. This distant triggering is
explained by the earthquake source properties coupled with the local
geological conditions. Our study documents a rare example of slow-moving
landslides accelerated by an earthquake, and opens perspectives for the
study of the landslide triggering over various time-scales.