LESSONS FROM ONTAKE-SAN - A COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF DEBRIS AVALANCHE DYNAMICS

Dynamic aspects of the long runout Ontake-san debris avalanche are evaluated by a comparison of several models. An unsteady numerical model assumes two-dimensional flow of an incompressible biviscous or Newtonian fluid, represented as a continuum with a free surface. Internal deformation of the flowing mass is considered, as well as boundary resistances. Thus flow thinning and deposit shape as well as flow kinematics may be modeled. Parameters are adjusted to match observed runout, with additional constraints on velocity and emplacement time. With abundant constraints for Ontake-san, from careful field investigations by Japanese research teams, our analysis indicates that a substantial decrease in flow resistance occurred as a function of displacement. Constant-property models that match runout tend to overestimate the peak velocities and to underestimate the emplacement times. A staged increase in mobility in both constant volume and variable volume models leads to results consistent with field data. Runout in a channel overflow area was also modeled. Qualitatively similar results have been obtained by other researchers using simple sliding block models with empirical parameters, a slide block model with rational parameter selection, a modified flood simulation, and a multi-element frictional slide model. The relative merits of these models are compared. The field mechanisms associated with this mobility increase with displacement are poorly understood, but the question is now identified as a target for future research at debris avalanche sites, and some plausible mechanisms are considered. The main reason probably involves the entrainment of river water and saturated sediment, leading to enhanced efficiency of fluid pressure mechanisms with undrained shear; in addition, progressive shearing reduced the mean particle size and angularity, and the cohesion and friction (and apparent viscosity) of avalanche debris near the wetted perimeter. Hydroplaning - the shearing of water films and slurries - may have occurred locally.