Distribution Law of Landslides Triggered by Earthquake Based on Cellular Automata

In order to interpret the mechanism of distribution of landslides triggered by earthquake from a physical point of view, typical sections in earthquake zones in the Wenchuan earthquake were investigated, and related remote sensing data was interpreted. The result shows that there exists a negative power-law relationship between the volume and number of landslides in IX seismic intensity zone of the Wenchuan earthquake, and the same is true between the area and frequency of landslides in X intensity seismic zone. However, the relationship changes into a lognormal distribution in XI seismic intensity zone. In addition, cellular automata was used to simulate landslides. The cellular automaton simulation reveals that with the change of disturbance intensity, the dynamical mechanism of sand-pile model is from a strong power-law to a weak power law, then to a lognormal distribution. Under the conceptual framework of self-organized criticality, it is proved that the distribution model of landslides in different seismic intensity zones has a universal law. The research results may not only be used to guide inventory of landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake, but also provide a scientific basis for mountain disaster assessment in high seismic intensity zones.