3D Geophysical Modelling of the Vajont Landslide

The 1963 Vajont landslide, mostly because of its size and of the catastrophic effects, has been studied for several tens of years by many different authors (Selli and Trevisan, 1964; Rossi and Semenza, 1965; Martinis, 1978; Hendron and Patton, 1985; Semenza and Ghirotti, 2000). The majority of the studies focused on the triggering mechanisms (Kilburn and Petley, 2003) and on the post-failure geology. A comprehensive review is given by Semenza and Ghirotti (2005). Although the collapse has been largely studied some of the factors controlling the dynamic of the movement are still not completely clear. Among the major issues there is the high velocity of the sliding mass itself and the movement almost as a unitary rock block that caused such an unexpected large wave. A geophysical parameterization of the landslide body could result in a better insight in both in the understanding of the geometry settings and the topology of the collapsed units and in a better estimate of the changes of the elastic properties caused by the collapse. This last information could be used as a vital constrain in the recently developed collapse model.