Disproportionate and chronic sediment delivery from a fluvially controlled, deep-seated landslide in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Past research has highlighted the importance of sediment delivery from multiple-occurrence regional landslide events triggered by storms or earthquakes. Herein, we examine delivery from a more persistent source of sediment, that of a large, slow-moving landslide in the soft-rock hill country of Aotearoa New Zealand. We map and monitor the 80-ha Rangitikei Landslide from 2015 to 2019 using time-lapse photography, ground surveys, photogrammetry, and piezometers. We show that the landslide can be divided into several zones with distinctive movement patterns, but all zones respond to river erosion. The fastest zone moves more than 10 m per year in a flow-like fashion, while other zones move 0.01 m per year via slow sliding. Movement occurs all year round, but is two to three times faster in winter and spring. While rainfall and associated groundwater change are commonly attributed to landslide movement patterns, our data show that river flow correlates closely with the weekly to seasonal variability in movement of the landslide toe. This suggests that fluvial erosion can play an important role in the movement dynamics of highly coupled landslides. We estimate an annual sediment yield to the Rangitikei River of at least 40 000 tonnes, in this first quantification of sediment delivery from an active soft-rock landslide in Aotearoa. This volume implies 7% of the total catchment suspended sediment yield is derived from 0.03% of the contributing catchment area, demonstrating the disproportionate effect of this (and likely other) deep-seated landslide(s) as a source of sediment in the Rangitikei catchment. Sediment delivery is more continuous than the episodic supply of multiple-occurrence regional landslide triggering events, and by delivering mostly fine-grained sediment, it has a potentially large impact on water quality.