The Vajont landslide from analogue and numerical experiments

Understanding the breaking mechanism of landslides is fundamental to evaluate their hazard and to predict the energy release during the principal failure phase, the associated velocity and the runout distance. The intensity of the landslide represents one of the most important parameter to hypothesize the hazard scenario. The Vaiont Landslide represents one of the most disastrous Italian landslides in term of the human life loss. Since the catastrophic failure, numerous works have addressed the causes of the failure and the origin of the anomalous velocities, which have been estonated to be of the order of 25-30 m/s. We aimed answering some of these questions, and we integrated the results of some analogue and numerical models. The 2-D numerical approach has provided useful data to understand the triggering mechanism, while the analogue models are 3D simulations that helped understanding the internal deformation pattern developed into the sliding rock mass.