[en] Active fold-and-thrust belts create new landslide-prone slopes during tectonic deformation propagation. However, studies on landslide distribution in newly formed fold-and-thrust belts are limited. In this study, we present a new inventory of landslides in the Kura fold-and-thrust belt, a tectonically active, but relatively low-altitude southern margin of the Greater Caucasus. The area has been tectonically framed in the last ~2–3 Ma and is represented by folds and thrusts deforming Miocene to Quaternary sediments. Through satellite imagery analysis, we mapped nearly 1600 landslides, with a quarter currently active. While landslides cover <1 % of the area, they tend to cluster at higher elevations and in regions with relatively high local relief. Landslides predominantly occur in tectonically uplifted areas, affecting the highest and steepest parts of growing anticlines and the steep slopes of incising valleys intersecting active thrust faults. Based on observed landslide distribution in folds at different stages of development, we propose a conceptual model for the temporal evolution of landslide patterns in weak sediment-based fold-and-thrust belts: 1) In the initial stages, slow-moving slope deformations affect incipient thrust fronts. With the flanks of the growing anticline lacking sufficient steepness, landslides tend to concentrate in deep valleys intersecting the uplifting hanging walls. 2) With ongoing thrust uplift, growing and steepening anticlines become more prone to planar sliding when dip slopes exceed friction angle, and valley development creates additional dip slopes, resulting in widespread landslides. 3) In the final stage, erosional decay reduces topographic relief, leading to badland formation with gully erosion and decreased landslide occurrence.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Pánek, Tomáš; University of Ostrava, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Slezská Ostrava, Czech Republic
Břežný, Michal; University of Ostrava, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Slezská Ostrava, Czech Republic
Havenith, Hans-Balder ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Géologie de l'environnement
Tibaldi, Alessandro; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Language :
English
Title :
Landslides and growing folds: A lesson from the Kura fold-and-thrust belt (Azerbaijan, Georgia)
This study has been conducted in the framework of the 2022-2025 NATO project SPS G5907 “Prevention of Geo-Threats to Azerbaijan's Energy Independence”. We would like to acknowledge Fritz Schlunegger and anonymous reviewer for their careful reviews and valuable comments that improved the manuscript.
Agliardi, F., Crosta, G.B., Zanchi, A., Structural constrains on deep–seated slope deformations kinematics. Eng. Geol. 59 (2001), 83–102.
Alania, V., Chabukiani, A., Chagelishvili, R., Enukidze, O., Gogrichiani, K., Razmadze, A., Tsereteli, N., Growth structures, piggy-back basins and growth strata of the Georgian part of the Kura foreland fold-thrust belt: implications for late Alpine kinematic evolution. In Tectonic Evolution of the Eastern Black Sea and Caucasus (eds M Sosson, RA Stephenson and SA Adamia). Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 428 (2017), 171–185.
Allen, S.K., Cox, S.C., Owens, I.F., Rock avalanches and other landslides in the central Southern Alps of New Zealand: a regional study considering possible climate change impacts. Landslides 8 (2011), 33–48.
Bairamov, R.I., Veli-Zade, T.Y., Molokov, L.A., More on the landslide at Mingechaurskoye Reservoir. Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo 4 (1992), 38–41.
Borsuk, A.M., Sholpo, V.N., Correlation of endogenous processes in the Alpine cycle of the Caucasus. Rast, N., Delany, F.M., (eds.) Profiles of Orogenic Belts, Geodyn. Ser., vol. 10, 1983, AGU, Washington, D. C, 97–143.
Bull, W.B., Tectonic Geomorphology of Mountains. A New Approach to Paleoseismology. 2007, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford 316 p.
Burbank, D.W., McLean, J.K., Bullen, M.E., Abdrakhmatov, K.Y., Miller, M.M., Partitioning of intermontane basins by thrust-related folding. Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan. Basin Res. 11 (1999), 75–92.
Chigira, M., Tsou, C.-Y., Higaki, D., Amatya, S.C., A series of rockslides and gravitational slope deformations aligned along the Kali Gandaki across the Nepal Himalaya. Geomorphology, 400, 2022, 108098.
Clauset, A., Shalizi, C.R., Newman, M.E.J., Power-law distributions in empirical data. SIAM Rev. 51 (2009), 661–703.
Crosta, G., Frattini, P., Agliardi, F., Deep seated gravitational slope deformations in the European Alps. Tectonophysics 605 (2013), 13–33.
Cruden, D.M., Hu, X.Q., The shapes of some mountain peaks in the Canadian Rockies. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 24 (1999), 1–13.
Cruden, D.M., Varnes, D.J., Landslide types and processes. Turner, A.K., Schuster, R.L., (eds.) Landslides Investigation and Mitigation. Transportation Research Board, US National Research Council. Special Report 247, Washington, DC, 1996, 36–75.
Cruz Nunes, F., Delunel, R., Schlunegger, F., Akçar, N., Kubik, P.W., Bedrock bedding, landsliding and erosional budgets in the central European Alps. Terra Nova 27 (2015), 370–378.
Delchiaro, M., Della Seta, M., Martino, S., Nozaem, R., Moumeni, M., Tectonic deformation and landscape evolution inducing mass rock creep driven landslides: the Loumar case-study (Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt, Iran). Tectonophysics, 846, 2023, 229655.
Dramis, F., Sorriso-Valvo, M., Deep–seated gravitational slope deformations, related landslides and tectonics. Eng. Geol. 38 (1994), 231–243.
Fernandes, N.F., Dietrich, W.E., Hillslope evolution by diffusive processes: the time scale for equilibrium adjustments. Water Resour. Res. 33 (1997), 1307–1318.
Fick, S.E., Hijmans, R.J., WorldClim 2: new 1km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol. 37 (2017), 4302–4315.
Forte, A.M., Cowgill, E., Bernardin, T., Kreylos, O., Hamann, B., Late Cenozoic deformation of the Kura fold-thrust belt, southern Greater Caucasus. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 122 (2010), 465–486.
Forte, A.M., Cowgill, E., Murtuzayev, I., Kangarli, T., Stoica, M., Structural geometries and magnitude of shortening in the eastern Kura fold-thrust belt, Azerbaijan: implications for the development of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Tectonics 32 (2013), 688–717.
Forte, A.M., Cowgill, E., Whipple, K.X., Transition from a singly vergent to doubly vergent wedge in a young orogen: the Greater Caucasus. Tectonics 33 (2014), 2077–2101.
Forte, A.M., Sumner, D.Y., Cowgill, E., Stoica, M., Murtuzayev, I., Kangarli, T., Elashvili, M., Godoladze, T., Javakhishvili, Z., Late Miocene to Pliocene stratigraphy of the Kura Basin, a subbasin of the South Caspian Basin: implications for the diachroneity of stage boundaries. Basin Res. 27 (2015), 247–271.
Gillespie, C.S., Fitting heavy tailed distributions: the poweRlaw package. J. Stat. Soft., 64, 2015, 10.18637/jss.v064.i02.
Görüm, T., Tectonic, topographic and rock-type influences on large landslides at the northern margin of the Anatolian Plateau. Landslides 16 (2019), 333–346.
Görüm, T., Korup, O., van Westen, C.J., van der Meijde, M., Xu, C., van der Meer, F.D., Why so few? Landslides triggered by the 2002 Denali earthquake, Alaska. Quat. Sci. Rev. 95 (2014), 80–94.
Görüm, T., Tanyaş, H., Karabacak, F., Yilmaz, A., Girgin, S., Allstadt, K.E., Süzen, M.L., Burgi, P., Preliminary documentation of coseismic ground failure triggered by the February 6, 2023 Türkiye earthquake sequence. Eng. Geol., 327, 2023, 107315.
Gunnell, Y., Blondeau, S., Jarman, D., Rock slope failure in the Southern Carpathians (Romania): Range-wide inventory and links with long-term mountain landscape evolution. Geomorphology, 418, 2022, 108433.
Hammerstein, J.A., Di Cuia, R., Cottam, M.A., Zamora, G., Butler, R.W.H., Fold and thrust belts: structural style, evolution and exploration – an introduction. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 490 (2020), 1–8.
Harkins, N., Kirby, E., Heimsath, A., Robinson, R., Reiser, U., Transient fluvial incision in the headwaters of the Yellow River, northeastern Tibet, China. J. Geophys. Res. Earth 112 (2007), 1–21.
Havenith, H.B., Recent earthquake-triggered landslide events in Central Asia, evidence of seismic landslides in the lesser caucasus and the carpathians. Towhata, I., Wang, G., Xu, Q., Massey, C., (eds.) Coseismic Landslides, Phenomena, Long-term effects and Mitigation, 2022, Springer, 115–143.
Hilley, G.E., Arrowsmith, J.R., Geomorphic response to uplift along the Dragon's Back pressure ridge, Carrizo Plain, California. Geology 36 (2008), 367–370.
Hu, X., Wu, J., Wen, Z., Zhang, J., Zhao, Q., Pan, B., Fluvial evolution in a growing thrust-fold range of the Yumu Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 594, 2022, 117704.
Hungr, O., Leroueil, S., Picarelli, L., The Varnes classification of landslide types, an update. Landslides 11 (2014), 167–194.
Islamova, S.K., Kazimova, S.E., Ismailova, S.S., Assessment of geodynamic risk of Mingachevir water reservoir. ANAS Trans. Earth Sci. 2 (2019), 61–69.
Ismail-Zadeh, A., Adamia, S., Chabukiani, A., Chelidze, T., Cloetingh, S., Floyd, M., Gorshkov, A., Gvishiani, A., Ismail-Zadeh, T., Kaban, M.K., Kadirov, F., Karapetyan, J., Kangarli, T., Kiria, J., Koulakov, I., Mosar, J., Mumladze, T., Müller, B., Sadradze, N., Safarov, R., Schilling, F., Soloviev, A., Geodynamics, seismicity, and seismic hazards of the Caucasus. Earth Sci. Rev., 207, 2020, 103222.
Jackson, J., Norris, R., Youngson, J., The structural evolution of active fault and fold systems in Central Otago, New Zealand: evidence revealed by drainage patterns. J. Struct. Geol. 18 (1996), 217–234.
Jarman, D., Harrison, S., Rock slope failure in the British Mountains. Geomorphology 340 (2019), 202–233.
Jibson, R.W., Prentice, C.S., Borissoff, B.A., Rogozhin, E.A., Langer, C.J., Some observations of landslides triggered by the 29 April 1991 Racha earthquake, Republic of Georgia. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 84 (1994), 963–973.
Keller, E.A., Gurrola, L., Tierney, T.E., Geomorphic criteria to determine direction of lateral propagation of reverse faulting and folding. Geology 27 (1999), 515–518.
Kirby, E., Whipple, K.X., Expression of active tectonics in erosional landscapes. J. Struct. Geol. 44 (2012), 54–75.
Kirby, E., Harkins, N., Wang, E., Shi, X., Fan, C., Burbank, D., Slip rate gradients along the eastern Kunlun fault. Tectonics, 26, 2007, TC2010.
Korup, O., Geomorphic implications of fault zone weakening: slope instability along the Alpine fault, South Westland to Fiordland. N. Z. J. Geol. Geophys. 47 (2004), 257–267.
Kotyuzhan, A.I., Molokov, L.A., A landslide near the abutment of the Mingechaur HES dam. Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo 2 (1990), 28–30.
Larsen, I., Montgomery, D., Landslide erosion coupled to tectonics and river incision. Nat. Geosci. 5 (2012), 468–473.
Matossian, A.O., Baghdasaryan, H., Avagyan, A., Igityan, H., Gevorgyan, M., Havenith, H.B., A new landslide inventory for the armenian lesser caucasus: slope failure morphologies and seismotectonic influences on large landslides. Geosciences, 10, 2020, 111.
Miller, S.R., Baldwin, S.L., Fitzgerald, P.G., Transient fluvial incision and active surface uplift in the Woodlark Rift of eastern Papua New Guinea. Lithosphere 4 (2012), 131–149.
Montgomery, D.R., Brandon, M.T., Topographic controls on erosion rates in tectonically active mountain ranges. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 201 (2002), 481–489.
Moreiras, S.M., Sepúlveda, S.A., Landslides in arid and semi-arid environments. Shroder, J.J.F., (eds.) Treatise on Geomorphology, vol. 5, 2022, Elsevier, Academic Press, 322–337.
Mosar, J., Kangarli, T., Bochud, M., Glasmacher, U.A., Rast, A., Brunet, M.F., Sosson, M., Cenozoic-recent tectonics and uplift in the Greater Caucasus: a perspective from Azerbaijan. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 340 (2010), 261–280.
Nalivkin, D.V., Geologic map of the Caucasus (in Russian): Ministry of Geology, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, scale 1:500,000. 1976.
Nikonov, A.A., Nikonova, K.I., The strongest earthquake in Transcaucasia on September 30, 1139. Reconstruction by Historical, Historical-architectural and Archaeological Materials— Topics of Engineering Seismology, 27, 1986, 152–183 (in Russian).
Pánek, T., Břežný, M., Kapustová, V., Lenart, J., Chalupa, V., Large landslides and deep-seated gravitational slope deformations in the Czech Flysch Carpathians: New LiDAR-based inventory. Geomorphology, 346, 2019, 106852.
Phillips, F.M., Meghraoui, M., Structural analysis and interpretation of the surface deformations of the El Asnam earthquake of October 10, 1980. Tectonics 2 (1983), 17–49.
Pierce, I., Guliyev, I., Yetirmishli, G., Muradov, R., Kazimova, S., Javanshiri, R., Johnson, B., Marshall, N., Walker, R., Wordsworth, P., in review. Surface rupturing earthquakes of the greater caucasus frontal thrusts, Azerbaijan, J. Geopys. Res. Solid Earth.
R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing., 2019, RFoundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D., Short communication: TopoToolbox 2 – MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis and modeling in Earth surface sciences. Earth Surf. Dyn. 2 (2014), 1–7.
Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D., Bumps in river profiles: uncertainty assessment and smoothing using quantile regression techniques. Earth Surf. Dyn. 5 (2017), 821–839.
Shirinov, F.A., Bajenov, Y.P., Geological Structure of the Southern Foothills of the Greater Caucasus. 1962 [in Russian], Baku.
Sukhishvili, L., Forte, A.M., Merebashvili, G.L.J., Whipple, K.X., Javakhishvili, Z., Heimsath, A., Godoladze, T., Active deformation and Plio-Pleistocene fluvial reorganization of the western Kura fold–thrust belt, Georgia: implications for the evolution of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Geol. Mag. 158 (2021), 583–597.
Tanyaş, H., Lombardo, L., Variation in landslide-affected area under the control of ground motion and topography. Eng. Geol., 260, 2019, 105229.
Tebbens, S.F., Landslide scaling: a aeview. Earth Space Sci., 7, 2020, e2019EA00066.
Telesca, L., Kadirov, F., Yetirmishli, G., Safarov, R., Kazimova, S., Joint use of seismological and topological statistical methods for the analysis of 2010–2016 azerbaijan seismicity. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175 (2018), 4225–4239.
Tibaldi, A., Bonali, F.C, Pasquaré Mariotto, F., Tsereteli, N., Havenith, H.B., Babayev, G., Pánek, T. in review. Structural expression of the frontal thrust of an active fold-and thrust belt: The Holocene 123-km-long Kura Fault, Greater Caucasus, Azerbaijan. J. Struct. Geol.
Tibaldi, A., Ferrari, L., Pasquarè, G., Landslides triggered by earthquakes and their relations with faults and mountain slope geometry: an example from Ecuador. Geomorphology 11 (1995), 215–226.
Van Den Eeckhaut, M., Poesen, J., Govers, G., Verstraeten, G., Demoulin, A., Characteristics of the size distribution of recent and historical landslides in a populated hilly region. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 256 (2007), 588–603.
Yetirmishli, G.J., Mammadli, T.Y., Rzayev, A.G., Muradov, R.B., Kazimova, S.E., Garaveliyev, E.S., Ismayilova, S.S., Kazimov, I.E., Baghirov, E.M., Manifestation features of landslide process around the Mingachevir reservoir (2014). Seismoprogn. Observ. Territ. Azerb. 15 (2018), 3–13.