Geological and hydrological study of a deep-seated toppling using time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography

Abstract

The toppling stability is influenced by hydrogeology. However, the correlation between toppling and ground- water is complex and remains poorly be understood compared to the relationship between slides and ground- water. In this study, a geo-electrical investigation of the deep-seated Shidaguan toppling in southwestern China was conducted between April 2019 and May 2020. The material types of the toppling were determined and a morphological structural model was established based on drilling and apparent resistivity data. Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was used to monitor the internal water flow processes within a large- scale deep-seated toppling. The processes of surface water infiltration and internal migration were captured, and a hydrological-mechanical coupling model was established. The model reveals that rainfall infiltrates the toppling body through priority flow paths, such as tension cracks, flexural fracture zones, and sliding surfaces, which leads to a reduction in shear strength along the basal surface. Furthermore, critical areas for monitoring and early warning of toppling were identified based on the evolution of deformation and water migration.

Keywords

Toppling / Time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography / Geological model / Hydrological model / Geophysical investigation

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Shenghua Cui: Data curation, Funding acquisition, Methodology. Hui Wang: Investigation, Writing - original draft. Xiangjun Pei: Funding acquisition, Project administration. Shuang He: Investigation, Methodology. Mengjie Yang: Investigation. Xiangning Xu: Data curation. Guoping Xiang: Investigation. Danqing Song: Conceptuali- zation. Yixiang Song: Methodology. Jianxin Song: Project adminis- tration. Yu Wang: Methodology.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2023YFC3007104) and National Science Foundation of China (No. 41931296).

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