mass wasting & soil survey. objectives show some case studies of how soil surveys handle...
TRANSCRIPT
Mass Wasting & Soil Survey
Objectives
• Show some case studies of how soil surveys handle landslides.– Guam– North Dakota– Alabama– California
• Discussion: are we doing enough?– Are we alerting our users to conditions and
potentials for slope failures?
Island of Guam
Affected by rotational landslides, in certain soils.
Just looking at the DEM, can you guess where they occur?
Eocene, Oligocene & Miocene;tuff, tuff breccia, tuffaceous sandstone/shale
Pliocene & Pleistocene;Reef complex, reef detritus
SSURGO soils of GuamGrouped by parent material (mostly)
Typical slides in soft, deeply weathered volcanic saproliteAnthropic grasslands are incapable of stabilizing this material:
tectonic uplift; deeply dissected; 80-100” rainfall; seasonally distributed
All pictures by Bob Gavenda, SS in Guam
Slides are extensive
Zoomed-in view of slide areas
Note recent burns; an aggravating factor
So… how would you map this?
Akina series: Inceptic Haplustoxv. fine, kaolinitic, isohyperthermic
Akina – Badland complexes(various slope classes)
SSURGO delineations of Akina-badlands cpx.
Rotational Slides provide parent material for Togcha soils in footslope positions
Akina (residuum in saprolite)
Togcha (“slope alluvium” in SS; what should we call it?)
Note: taxonomic classifications shown are out of date.
The soil survey does not clearly address the issue of rotational slides.
Slides and soil survey in North Dakota
McKenzie county
Barnes county
McKenzie county, NDLots of badlands – any slides?
Little Missouri R
IFSAR hillshade added…Do the slides stand out more?
Here’s how they mapped it…
Another view:IFSAR w hillshade
116F—Kremlin-Cabbart loams, slumped, 9 to 40 percent slopes
Setting:Kremlin soils occur on footslopes.Cabbart soils occur on summits and shoulders.This map unit occurs on ridges that are slumped in badlands.
Map Unit Composition (percent)Named Components
Kremlin and similar soils: 15 to 45 percentCabbart and similar soils: 15 to 50 percent
Average Component CompositionCabbart: 29 percentKremlin: 19 percentBoxwell: 17 percentScairt: 14 percentLonna: 13 percentBadland, outcrop: 5 percentFleak: 3 percent
From the soil survey manuscript (Aziz et al, 2006)
Valley City, NDBarnes county. Sheyenne R., I-94 at Valley City.
Where are the slides?
From Anderson (2004), NDGS
LiDAR & SSURGO
Kloten – Buse cpx., 9-35%Kloten: shale @ <20”Buse: till
From Soil Survey: Kloten – lower side slopes Buse – upper side slopes, shoulders, & summits
Note “bumpy” texture of LiDAR in the Kloten-Buse 9-35% unit
From hard-copy soil survey:Not readily available to public
How can we incorporate our knowledge of potential slippage more explicitly into the soil survey?
Mass movement and soil survey in Huntsville, AL (Madison county).
Viewed on a 2009 SGI field trip.
Spectacular rotational slide near Huntsville, AL
Plateau summit
Steep slopes
Fancy houses
Oblique view from ArcGIS Explorer
Slope failure (main scarp) at contact of overlying sandstone with underlying shale.Soil survey lines follow this contact.Can we capture this information in SSURGO?
Soil Survey of Napa county, CA
Fagan clay loam, 30-50% slopes, slumped
Fine, smectitic, Typic Argiudolls
40-60” to Cr sandstone
Associated with marine sediments(?)
Summary and Discussion
• Mass wasting is handled in various ways in county soil surveys:– Components; e.g., badlands– Map unit name; e.g. slumped
• Failure zones are implicitly identified in county soil surveys:– Contrasting components within map units– Boundaries between map units
• Discussion: can we do better?– i.e., clearly alert users to landslide activity and hazards, both
spatially (maps) and in attributes / interpretations.