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Seismic signatures of landslides: The 1990 Brenda Mine collapse and the 1965 hope rockslides

Geological Survey of Canada Pacific Geoscience Centre Sidney, British Columbia, V8L 4B2 Canada
Geological Survey of Canada Terrain Sciences Division, Ottawa, K1A 0E8 Canada

Abstract

We present the well-documented case of a 2 · 10⁶ m³ rockslide that was recorded by seismographs to distances of several hundred kilometers and might have entered the Canadian catalog as a bona fide earthquake except for independent knowledge to the contrary. Motivated by the observation of this event, we reexamined the seismograms associated with the 1965 Hope slide in British Columbia, the largest known historical landslide in the Canadian Cordillera, and conclude that these seismograms were the signatures of two rockslides, and not of hypothetical tectonic earthquake triggers as previously suggested (Mathews and McTaggart, 1969; Wetmiller and Evans, 1989). These events raise the general question of differentiation between seismic signals from landslides and true earthquakes. We suggest an LP/SP discriminant as the most obvious, although a resolvable mechanism solution may be even more convincing. Efficiency of energy conversion from potential to seismic is also a diagnostic aid and correlates well with the slope of the slide detachment surface.

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