Geological model influence on slope stability : torrioni di Rialba Case

Landslides are one of the most important types of natural disaster that can cause significant loss of life and property damage. Comprehensive knowledge about their structure, their possible position and triggering factors has key role for landslide hazard assessment and analysis. Plus, the path and the final distance from the origin are also important considerations for study of landslides and their potential hazard. Our understanding of geological model of the slopes has been improved with the development of new, innovative data collection methods to ac¬quire necessary data and the integration of these with advanced computer modeling techniques. However, complex geological structures and complicated formations sometimes lead to more sophisticated problems and require in-depth investigations in all aspects. Numerical modeling techniques have been widely used to solve complex slope problems, which otherwise, could not have been possible using conventional techniques. These models are used to simulate rock slope as well soil slope with complex conditions. All rock slopes involve many discontinuities such as joint, fault, bedding plane, etc. Precise representation of discontinuities in numerical models depends on the type of model. The Rialba Towers (Torrioni di Rialba) is a tall rock cliff with 135 m height located in Abbadia Lariana, northern Italy. It is an example of a complex geological structure suspected to being unstable. Although, it has not shown any evidence of instability recently, the study has an utmost importance since is located near the narrow corridor where important lifelines pass alongside each other and connects the northern part of the area to the rest of the country. Geological and Geophysical investigations in conjunction with Lidar survey and lake bathymetry near the zone have been conducted in order to have a fundamental information about the area. This study mainly focuses on the numerical application of the evaluated parameters to build a computational model and to impose it to different initial and boundary conditions, exclusively, seven real earthquakes which are recorded on that area.