Original Insights Into Rock Slope Damage Processes Until Collapse From Passive Seismic Monitoring
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P. Bottelin, L. Baillet · arXiv: 2611.02863v1 · Summary page
Why cover this story this week?
Listening for damage inside a mountainside
Surface movement does not tell the whole story of a failing rock slope. Researchers monitored the unstable La Praz slope in the French Alps for more than 10 years, using passive seismic measurements alongside deformation observations. During the six months before collapse, its fundamental resonance frequency fell by 24%, indicating a loss of overall rock-mass stiffness. Comparing the signals revealed alternating episodes of abrupt brittle damage and more ductile behavior, potentially involving sliding.
Some internal damage was ambiguous or invisible in the surface-deformation measurements alone. Combining the approaches could therefore improve recognition of periods when a slope is deteriorating. But this preprint does not establish a general collapse-warning rule: some damage episodes coincided with triggers such as intense rainfall, while others had no clear external explanation.
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