The structure, morphology, and surface texture of debris avalanche deposits : field and remote sensing mapping and analogue modelling Engielle Mae Paguican To cite this version: Engielle Mae Paguican. The structure, morphology, and surface texture of debris avalanche deposits : field and remote sensing mapping and analogue modelling. Earth Sciences. Université Blaise Pascal- Clermont-Ferrand II, 2012. English. NNT : 2012CLF22255. tel-00794267 HAL Id: tel-00794267 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00794267 Submitted on 25 Feb 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. N◦ d’Ordre : D. U. 2255 Université Blaise Pascal U.F.R. Sciences et Technologies ECOLE DOCTORALE DES SCIENCES FONDAMENTALES N◦ 721 THESE présentée pour obtenir le grade de DOCTEUR D’UNIVERSITÉ Spécialité: Volcanologie Par PAGUICAN, Engielle Mae Master The Structure, Morphology, and Surface Texture of Debris Avalanche Deposits: Field and Remote Sensing Mapping and Analogue Modelling 9 July 2012 Jury : Examiner : Raphael Paris — Université Blaise Pascal Reviewers : Jean-Luc Schneider — Université Bordeaux Anne Le Friant — Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris Thomas Oommen — Michigan Technological University Advisor : Benjamin van Wyk de Vries — Université Blaise Pascal Alfredo Mahar Francisco Lagmay — University of the Philippines i For Daddy Tim, Mommy Vangie, Ivan Grace and Gareth ii Acknowledgements: I want to give my biggest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Benjamin van Wyk de Vries, who has always made me feel that I am in control over my academic life but he is available for support, guidance and advise if needed. It is a dream come true to have worked with you, BossChiefBen! Thank you for helping me get some funding to continue my work, and for giving me the opportunity to travel, share my work and meet people. I appreciate the travel opportunities a lot! Thank you for making me a ‘more international” PhD student. I also want to thank Dr Mahar Lagmay and Dr Carlo Arcilla for their efforts on having my MOA signed. A BIG-BIG Thanks to My Family: Daddy Tim, Mommy Vangie, Ivan Grace, relatives and friends who supported me 100 percent on my dream of becoming a scientist. And to my “other half”, my partner, my travel buddy, my red knight - Gareth Fabbro who showered me with all the love, encouragement, and support I needed. I love you. My desire of becoming a good scientist started with The Philippine Society of Youth Science Clubs (PSYSC) fourteen years ago. In PSYSC, I have met my lifetime friends who walked with me in the halls of learning and shared my dreams, laughter, and sorrow. My PhD has been an opportunity for academic and personal growth. Along the way, I met people who took care of me like I am part of the family. Among those are: My Family in Clermont-Ferrand: BCBen-MomFran-Max- Eva-Flori-Nora; My family in Buhi, Ate Analiza-Jerry Morada and Family; and My Family in Buffalo:SirCaco-MumEliza-Isla-Ciaran; and for Serge and Jennifer Bravinder for providing me a roof for a month. PhD would not be exciting without the company of other PhDs and everyone in the Lab, my officemates a.k.a my partymates: Gareth, BRap- tiste, Deniz, Asmaa-Manu, Oscar-Amelie, Gabi-your car is the best! Yannick, Camille, Manon and Nabaz. I stayed in NIGS for about five months during the fieldwork at Iriga and I want to thank the people in the Administration Office, Ate Che-Che, Ate Lexie, Kuya Ronel for your efforts in helping me. Most especially to Gerard “Kuya Titan” Quina for being a field partner, for being with me every step of the way, and for never letting me walk alone. Also thanks to my NIGS friends, April Lim, Cathy Abon, Meryl Calibo, and Grace Bato for their field assistance and friendship in NIGS. I have to give thanks for the logistic support of Dr Arcilla who favored me a lot while I was in NIGS. I am grateful to the reviews and mostly positive comments of my Jury: Dr Raphael Paris, Dr Thomas Oomen, Dr Jean-Luc Schneider and Dr Anne Le Friant and careful review of of our Iriga Paper which is Chapter 2 of this iii work by Prof Jocelyn McPhie, Lee Siebert and an anonymous reviewer, and Chapter 6 by Dr Onur Kose. This work is a result of the co-tutelle PhD program between the Universite Blaise Pascal and the University of the Philippines. As the first co-tutelle student under this program, I have been to a complete spectrum of procedural and bureaucratic issues from immigration to day-to-day survival, making this whole thing a self-sacrifice in itself. Despite all these, I am more than thankful for I have grown stronger and I have had the opportunity to learn more, appreciate the simplest things and look at life at its brighter side. And I dedicate this work to those who have shared with me their precious time and knowledge and in one way or another eased the burden. Funding I got from this work was provided by the French Embassy in Manila, the EIFFEL Excellence Scholarship, the UBP International Office and the Doctoral School. I thank everyone from the embassy who assisted me and whom I have met among those are Mlle Isabelle Epaillard, Mlle Julie Blazy, and Mlle Anais Bouquelloen. Lastly, I offer my most fervent thanks to the most gracious Infant Jesus of Prague: O most gracious Infant Jesus, in humble adoration I offer You most fervent thanks for all the blessings You have bestowed upon me. I shall always praise Your ineffable mercy and confess that You alone are my God, my helper, and my protector. Henceforth my entire confidence shall be placed in You. Everywhere will I proclaim Your mercy and generosity, so that Your great love and the great deeds which You perform may be acknowledge by all. May devotion to Your most Holy Infancy extend more and more in the hearts of all Christians and may all who experience Your assistance persevere in returning unceasing gratitude to Your most Holy Infancy to which be praise and glory for all eternity. Amen. v Abstract: Flank collapse generates avalanches and large landslides that significantly change the shape of a volcano and alter the surrounding landscape. Most types of volcanoes experience flank collapse at some point during their development. In the Philippines, for example, the numerous volcanoes with breached edifices belong to the cone, subcone, and massif morphometric classes. Debris ava- lanches occur frequently on both volcanic and non-volcanic terrains making it an important geologic event to consider for hazard assessment. Debris avalanche deposits (DAD) preserve surface and internal structures, morphology, and texture that can be used to determine transport type, de- formation history, causal mechanism, and emplacement kinematics. However, natural DAD are often too vast and chaotic-seeming in the field so that struc- tural and morphological mapping by remote sensing is a good complement to studying them. This study describes and analyses recurrent structural and morphological features of analogue models and natural DAD at Mt Iriga and Guinsaugon (Philippines), and uses several other examples at Mt Meager (Canada), and Storegga Slide (Norway). The study explores the use of analogue models as landslide kinematics, dynamics, and emplacement and causal mechanism indicators. Hummocks are identified as a key structural element of DAD. Hummocks, a major DAD topographic feature, are formed as the mass in motion slides and evolves by progressive spreading and break up. Internally, high angle normal faults dissect hummocks and merge into low angle shear zones at the base of the slide zone. Hummock size distribution is related to lithology, initial position, and avalanche kinematics. Hummocks provide in- formation on the transport conditions and initial composition of the landslide. Their geometry (size and shape), internal structures, and spatial distribution are kinematic indicators for landslides from development until emplacement and provide a framework for interpreting emplacement dynamics. Experiments with curved analogue ramps show the development of an area of accumulation and thickening, where accelerating materials reach a gently sloped depositional surface. Experiments with straight ramps show a longer slides with continued extension by horst and graben structures and transtensional grabens. A thickened mass is found to subsequently remobilise and advance by secondary collapse. This set of experiments show that failure and transport surface morphology can influence the emplacement mechanism, morphology, and avalanche runout. Structural and morphological mapping by remote sensing, and descrip- tion of recurrent features at the remote and previously unmapped Süphan Dağı (Turkey), Cerro Pular-Pajonales (Argentina), and Tacna (Peru) DAD vi suggest scenarios, causes, triggering and emplacement mechanisms of these DAD. These are used to explain their avalanche kinematics and dynamics. Mapping DAD is a necessary step for identifying past events and existing hazards in specific areas. Identifying and describing the DAD structures and morphology will help understand the kinematics and dynamics of the emplaced avalanches. Keywords: debris avalanche deposits; hummocks; structural and mor- phological mapping, analogue modelling; remote sensing; Mt Iriga; Guin- saugon; Mt Meager; Storegga landslide; Süphan Dağı (Turkey); Cerro Pular- Pajonales (Argentina); Tacna (Peru) vii Rèsume: Les effondrements de flanc déclenchent de larges avalanches de débris et glisse- ments de terrain, provoquant ainsi une modification de la pente du volcan et altérant le paysage.