Landslide Movement at Lokanthali during the 2015 Earthquake in Gorkha, Nepal
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 3
Abstract
The Gorkha earthquake () of April 25, 2015, caused widespread damage in the Kathmandu Valley. At a gently sloping site, known as Lokanthali, large ground fissures and tension cracks with vertical offsets in excess of 1 m, were observed along a ridge for a distance of about 1 km. The authors conducted a postearthquake engineering field reconnaissance of the affected areas, surveyed the topography of the site, performed subsurface explorations, conducted in situ shear strength tests, and performed dynamic simple shear as well as bender element tests, on soil samples from the site. Additionally, numerical analyses were performed to understand the seismic vulnerability of the site. The numerical geomechanical modeling showed that the site was most likely affected by seismically induced landslide movements. Results of this study provide a valuable case history of moderate seismic shaking and landslide movement, which may be used by researchers for the calibration of simplified Newmark models.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the support of NSF for the travel of the first author for his first field investigation as a GEER team leader. Moreover, the authors want to acknowledge the support of Shakil Manandhar for facilitating the topographic surveying and Smriti Dhital for preparing the landslide cross-sections. Likewise, the assistance of Jason Garner and Kristen Chang in the preparation of this manuscript with the analyses of the KATNP ground motions is appreciated greatly.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 3 • March 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 17, 2017
Accepted: Aug 30, 2017
Published online: Jan 12, 2018
Published in print: Mar 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 12, 2018
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