Topographic Evolution Involving Co-Seismic Landslide, Deformation, Long-Term Folding and Isostatic Rebound: A Case Study on the 2004 Chuetsu Earthquake

Abstract

Co-seismic landslide volume information is critical to understanding the role of strong earthquakes in topographic and geological evolution. The availability of both pre- and post-earthquake high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) provides us with the opportunity to develop a new approach to obtain robust landslide volume information. Here, we propose a method for landslide volume estimation and test it in the Chuetsu region, where a Mw 6.6 earthquake occurred in 2004. First, we align the DEMs by reconstructing the horizontal difference. Then, we quantitatively obtain the landslide volume in the epicentral area by differencing the pre- and post-earthquake DEMs. We convert the landslide volume into the distribution of average catchment-scale denudation and the resulting long-term crustal rebound. Our findings reveal that the Chuetsu earthquake mainly roughens the topography in the low-elevation Chuetsu region. Our results indicate that the preserved topography not only is due to the uplift caused by fault-related folding on the hanging wall of the Muikamachi fault but also undergoes erosion caused by seismically induced landslides and crustal rebound also modifies the topography in the long term. This study confirms that the differential DEM method is a valuable approach for quantitative analysis of topographic and geological evolution.