Investigation of the mechanism and causes of Serdarlı District landslide (Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus - TRNC)

This study includes investigation of the mechanism and reasons of a landslide which blocked a road to transportation and took place 500m NE of Ergenekon village of Serdarlı District located on the southern slopes of Beşparmak Mountain Range in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The failure surface developed within a mélange formation during a rainy season and resulted in buckling of the road by about 2m. Different limiting equilibrium methods and discrete finite element methods (DFEM) were used for the assessment of the slope instability. The factor of safety of the slope changes between 1.22 and 1.26 when the slope is dry. The results showed that the slope failure may occur when the pore water pressure coefficient has a value between 0.25 and 0.35. A failure surface, combination of discontinuities with tectonic origin, was assumed for the stability assessment of the slope by using DFEM analyses. The results indicated that the slope becomes unstable when pore water pressure coefficient in the slope forming material becomes 0.4. © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London