Analysis of the Aso-Bridge landslide during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan

In 2016, earthquakes occurred beneath Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture in the Kyushu Region of Japan and generated numerous landslides around the city, and among those triggered in this disastrous event, the Aso-Bridge landslide was the largest. For the purpose of examining the behavior of this large-scale landslide during the main shock of the Kumamoto earthquakes, we conducted a study involving simplified sliding block concepts and finite element codes, and conclude that (a) the slope of the Aso-Bridge landslide (about 710 m high and with a dip angle of 33 °) is marginally stable in the absence of earthquakes; (b) the failure surface obtained using finite element codes is in satisfactory agreement with that of the actual failure surface;