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A subaqueous hazard map for earthquake-triggered landslides in Lake Zurich, Switzerland

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Abstract

The awareness of geohazards in the subaqueous environment has steadily increased in the past years and there is an increased need to assess these hazards in a quantitative sense. Prime examples are subaqueous landslides, which can be triggered by a number of processes including earthquakes or human activities, and which may impact offshore and onshore infrastructure and communities. In the literature, a plenitude of subaqueous landslide events are related to historical earthquakes, including cases from lakes in Switzerland. Here, we present an approach for a basin-wide earthquake-triggered subaquatic landslide hazard assessment for Lake Zurich, which is surrounded by a densely populated shoreline. Our analysis is based on high-resolution sediment-mechanical and geophysical input data. Slope stabilities are calculated with a grid-based limit equilibrium model on an infinite slope, which uses Monte Carlo sampled input data from a sediment-mechanical stratigraphy of the lateral slopes. Combined with probabilistic ground-shaking forecasts from a recent national seismic hazard analysis, subaquatic earthquake-triggered landslide hazard maps are constructed for different mean return periods, ranging from 475 to 9975 years. Our results provide a first quantitative landslide hazard estimation for the lateral slopes in Lake Zurich. Furthermore, a back-analysis of a case-study site indicates that pseudostatic accelerations in the range between 0.04 and 0.08 g were needed to trigger a well-investigated subaqueous landslide, dated to ~2210 cal. years B.P.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Swiss National Foundation Grant No. 133481. Utsav Mannu is thanked for his help with speeding up the MATLAB code. Andrea Wolter is thanked for the discussions on the interslice forces. The editor and anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for their constructive inputs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Institute, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    M. Strupler & M. Strasser

  2. Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    M. Strupler, L. Danciu, K. Kremer & S. Wiemer

  3. Institute of Geological Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    M. Hilbe & F. S. Anselmetti

  4. Institute of Geology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    M. Strasser

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  1. M. Strupler
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  2. L. Danciu
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Strupler, M., Danciu, L., Hilbe, M. et al. A subaqueous hazard map for earthquake-triggered landslides in Lake Zurich, Switzerland. Nat Hazards 90, 51–78 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3032-y

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