View article

Patterns and rates of landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in mountain catchments are determined by the strength and location of rain storms and earthquakes, and by the sequence in which they occur. To explore this notion, landslides caused by three tropical cyclones and a very large earthquake have been mapped in the Chenyoulan catchment in the Taiwan Central Range, where water and sediment discharges and rock strengths are well known. Prior to the M_W 7·6 Chi‐Chi earthquake in 1999, storm‐driven landslide rates were modest. Landslides occurred primarily low within the landscape in shallow slopes, reworking older colluvial material. The Chi‐Chi earthquake caused wide‐spread landsliding in the steepest bedrock slopes high within the catchment due to topographic focusing of incoming seismic waves. After the earthquake landslide rates remained elevated, landslide patterns closely tracking …