Triggering conditions and runout simulation of the San Mango sul Calore Debris Avalanche, Southern Italy

On the 10th November 2010, a debris avalanche occurred in the San Mango sul Calore municipality (Southern Italy). The event was triggered from the North facing side of Mount Tuoro after a rainstorm, involving pyroclastic and colluvial materials that covered part of the hill-slope. The landslide destroyed and occupied houses and damaged several service lines. Field surveys showed that it affected only the deforested part of the slope and its source area was located downslope a man-made cut. We analyzed rainfall data of the climatic station located about 1 km far from the debris avalanche at about 600 m above the sea level. The landslide was triggered after about 63 h of rainfall. The cumulative rain recorded during the storm was about 235 mm. In the three days of rain, the alert threshold of a rainstorm hazard index used as a reference has been exceeded. In order to obtain information about landslide motion we performed a dynamic analysis using the model DAN3D to simulate the landslide mass. The rheological parameters used to simulate the event have been obtained from laboratory tests and through trial and error site-specific calibration. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014