Creeping deformation of the Maoping landslide and its stability in the Geheyan reservoir on the Qingjiang River, western Hubei, China

The Maoping landslide is a large and old landslide of the bed rock in the Geheyan reservoir area of the Qingjiang River. Since the reservoir was impounded in April 1993, the deformation of the landslide is conspicuous progressively and shows the characteristics of holistic creeping. According to the deformation monitoring data over 12 years, the authors analyze the creeping properties and variation trend of the landslide and think that the deformation of the Maoping landslide has the feature of progressive failure and is in the stage of accelerated creeping at present. The stability calculation also indicates that the landslide is in a latent critical unstable state. It is possible that the landslide might lose its stability and slide down en masse if there occur trigger factors such as heavy rains, abrupt lowering of the reservoir water level, avalanches and earthquakes.