Landslides and dam damage resulting from the Jiuzhaigou earthquake (8 August 2017), Sichuan, China

A magnitude 7.0 strike-slip earthquake on August 8, 2017, triggered 1780 landslides and damaged two dams at Jiuzhaigou Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sichuan, China. The quake, caused by concealed faults, primarily affected the Rize and Shuzheng Valleys, with most landslides being shallow, small-scale events like rockfalls and avalanches. Key factors included slope angle, aspect, seismic faults, and valley trends, alongside hanging wall and back-slope effects. The Nuorilang Waterfall dam suffered damage due to low initial stability, topographic amplification, and excess pore water pressure, while the Huohua Lake dam was breached. Remote sensing and emergency investigations identified failure modes such as wedge rock mass collapse and weathered rock mass failure.

Zhao, B., Wang, Y.-s., Luo, Y.-h., Li, J., Zhang, X., & Shen, T. (2018). Landslides and dam damage resulting from the Jiuzhaigou earthquake (8 August 2017), Sichuan, China. Royal Society Open Science, 5(3), 171418. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171418