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Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; June 1983; v. 73; no. 3; p. 863-877
© 1983 Seismological Society of America
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Dynamic analysis of a slope failure from the 6 August 1979 Coyote Lake, California, earthquake

RAYMOND C. WILSON and DAVID K. KEEFER

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 345 MIDDLEFIELD ROAD, MAIL STOP 98, MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA 94025

Abstract

The Coyote Lake, California, earthquake of 6 August 1979 (ML = 5.7) provided a rare opportunity to perform a dynamic numerical analysis of a seismically induced slope failure using actual strong-motion records. The earthquake displaced a preexisting slump on the northeast shore of Lake Anderson and formed a fissure 20 m long; offsets of 9 mm vertically and 18 mm horizontally were measured across the fissure. The slump is 9 km northwest of the located epicenter but within 100 m of the mapped trace of the Calaveras fault. Two strong-motion records were written in the vicinity of the slump: Coyote Creek, 5 km to the southeast, and Gilroy #6, 15 km to the southeast. These records combined with field measurements of the slope, estimates of the material properties, and a dynamic numerical model based on the Newmark analysis of seismic slope stability to calculate a predicted displacement for the landslide. A displacement of 27 mm, calculated using the N50°E component of the Gilroy #6 record, is in excellent agreement with the displacement measured in the field (21 mm). However, displacements of only 0.12 mm, calculated using the 250° component of the Coyote Creek strong-motion record, reflect significant local variations in seismic shaking intensity.

Because strong-motion records and slope failures rarely coincide, this landslide provides an important test case for our understanding of the dynamics of seismically induced landslides, as well as a warning that local seismologic variations need to be considered in any design applications.




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