Investigation of recent catastrophic landslides in the flysch belt of Outer Western Carpathians (Czech Republic): Progress towards better hazard assessment

Abstract

Rapid snow melting and intense precipitation triggered and reactivated tens of mostly shallow landslides in the eastern part of the Czech Republic at the turn of March and April 2006. This area is build up by highly fractured flysch rock units with variable content of sandstones and claystones. The landslide complex at Hluboče (Brumov-Bylnice town) is composed of shallow translational (up to 10 m thick) as well as deep-seated (up to 20 m thick) rotational landslides, which generated a catastrophic earthflow at their toe. This earthflow destroyed three buildings, the access road and caused total loss of about 350 000 EUR. Detailed field investigation, review of the archive sources and interviewing of local inhabitants allowed brief description of slope movement history prior the catastrophic event as well as detailed reconstruction of slope failure mechanisms during the main movement activity (3ĝ€"4 April 2006). This information, along with the detailed description of the passive as well as active causative factors (structural and morphologic settings) can contribute towards better identification of potentially dangerous slope failures in the study region.