Research on high-altitude and long-runout rockslides: Review and prospects

Long-runout rockslides at high altitude have caused lots of severe casualties and huge economic losses in the world, becoming a focus issue in researches on mitigation for large-scale geological disasters. This paper systematically reviews the research process of high-altitude and long-runout rockslides and believes that conventional research on “high velocity and long runout” is difficult to adapt to the requirements of complex geohazards prevention and mitigation in high and extra-high mountains. The methodology on high-altitude and long-runout rockslides has been proposed that includes in the initiation at the high-position, the dynamics of chain-style disasters with a long-runout traveling and the risk assessment and mitigation. Then, the disaster-prone geostructure characteristics and early identification techniques of the high-altitude initiation zone, the long-runout transferring mechanism and boundary layer effect of high-velocity debris avalanche, and risk assessment and mitigation issues have been explored. Through the study in the high mountain and extra-high mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau indicates that the potential flow transferring mechanism of debris avalanche in high-altitude rockslides, the boundary layer effect of turbulent fluid and the plowing bodies. It is proposed that energy dissipation and risk mitigation methods can be used by modifying the boundary layer bottom slope of high potential debris avalanche, to increase the generation of turbulent kinetic energy in the boundary layer, and the dead zone range in front of barrier piles. Three research directions have been discussed, including the initiating mechanism of disaster-prone geostructure, the dynamic process of high-altitude and long-runout disaster chains, and the theory and technology of risk prevention and mitigation

Landslide research in China

On 9 April 2000, a 91 Mm3 rock avalanche occurred in Linzhi Prefecture, Tibet. The event was accompanied by a deafening noise, with the rock mass travelling from a maximum elevation of 5132 m and coming to a rest at an elevation of 2163 m. It formed a landslide dam in the Yigong Zangbo River of some 55 m height, impounding a reservoir of some 2 Gm3 for a period of 62 days after which it emptied in less than 12 h. This event was a forewarning of a period of frequent geological disasters in China during the start of the 21st century. The ensuing Wenchuan earthquake (surface-wave magnitude Ms 8.0; May 2008), Zhouqu debris flow (August 2010) and Ludian earthquake (Ms 6.7; August 2014) led to the Chinese Government renewing its campaign against geological disasters and it has since invested heavily in scientific research to guide efforts to mitigate the impact of such natural disasters. This thematic set on Landslide Research in China was initiated to highlight this research. This paper provides a brief review of three of the featured subjects and accompanies the five papers published in the thematic set. Large earthquakes severely affect the geological environment and also result in the potential for secondary disasters in the days, months and years that follow. There is continued debate on how quickly landscapes recover following a high-magnitude disturbance. Lin et al. (2006, 2009) studied the ChiChi earthquake of 1999 and found that 5 years after the earthquake the area experienced a relatively high number of landslides (including debris flows) followed by a trend of gradual decline. Hovius et al. (2011) concluded that it took c. 6 years for the landslide signal to return to pre-1999 levels. Other examples of long-term landscape recovery have been discussed by, for example, Nakamura et al. (2000) for the 1923 Ms 7.9 Kanto earthquake in Japan, and by Huang (2011) for the 2008 Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, China. The Wenchuan earthquake took place on 12 May 2008 in Sichuan Province, resulting in some 200 000 landslide events (Xu et al. 2013), and in the following years the province frequently experienced further landslide activity. According to the first author's statistics, the province experienced 668, 934, 2161, 1997 and 3147 geohazard events between 2008 and 2012. The enhanced landslide and debris-flow activity after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was highlighted in the Special Issue of Engineering Geology ‘The long-term geologic hazards in areas struck by large-magnitude earthquakes’ (2014, Volume 182, Part B)

Flux regulation through glycolysis and respiration is balanced by inositol pyrophosphates in yeast

Although many prokaryotes have glycolysis alternatives, it\u27s considered as the only energy-generating glucose catabolic pathway in eukaryotes. Here, we managed to create a hybrid-glycolysis yeast. Subsequently, we identified an inositol pyrophosphatase encoded by OCA5 that could regulate glycolysis and respiration by adjusting 5-diphosphoinositol 1,2,3,4,6-pentakisphosphate (5-InsP7) levels. 5-InsP7 levels could regulate the expression of genes involved in glycolysis and respiration, representing a global mechanism that could sense ATP levels and regulate central carbon metabolism. The hybrid-glycolysis yeast did not produce ethanol during growth under excess glucose and could produce 2.68 g/L free fatty acids, which is the highest reported production in shake flask of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This study demonstrated the significance of hybrid-glycolysis yeast and determined Oca5 as an inositol pyrophosphatase controlling the balance between glycolysis and respiration, which may shed light on the role of inositol pyrophosphates in regulating eukaryotic metabolism

The asparagus genome sheds light on the origin and evolution of a young Y chromosome

Several models have been proposed to explain the emergence of sex chromosomes. Here, through comparative genomics and mutant analysis, Harkess et al. show that linked but separate genes on the Y chromosome are responsible for sex determination in Asparagus, supporting a two-gene model for sex chromosome evolution

international consortium on landslides icl the proposing organization of the isdr icl sendai partnerships 2015 2025open image in new window

The International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) was founded in January 2002 during the UNESCO-Kyoto University Joint IGCP symposium "Landslide Risk Mitigation and Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage". It proposed and adopted the Letter of Intent in 2005 during the 2nd UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction, Kobe, Japan, adopted the Tokyo Action Plan in 2006, and the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 in 2015. This paper describes the history of ICL from preparation to present in a table of the chronology of events since 1987-present including the organization of ICL until 2020 when the Fifth World Landslide Forum will be held in Kyoto, Japan

Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides: Volume 1 ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015-2025

This volume contains peer-reviewed papers from the Fourth World Landslide Forum organized by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), the Global Promotion Committee of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL), University of Ljubljana (UL) and Geological Survey of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia from May 29 to June 2, 2017. The complete collection of papers from the Forum is published in five full-color volumes

Landslide Science for a Safer GeoenvironmentVolume 3: Targeted Landslides /

XXVIII, 717 p. 750 illus., 654 illus. in color.on

Landslide Science for a Safer GeoenvironmentVolume 2: Methods of Landslide Studies /

XXIX, 851 p. 861 illus., 706 illus. in color.onli