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Unveiling the role of seepage forces in the acceleration of frictional creep in fluid-saturated shear zone

Einat Aharonov(1,2), Fabian Barras(2)†, Andreas Aspaas(2,3) and Francois Renard (2,4)

(1) The Fredy and Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

(2) Other Institute (insert manually)

(3) Other Institute (insert manually)

(4) Other Institute (insert manually)

The Njord Centre, Departments of Geosciences and Physics, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway.

In the context of global climate change, geological materials are increasingly destabilized by water flow and infiltration. We study the creeping dynamics of a densely monitored landslide in Western Norway to decipher the role of fluid flow in destabilizing this landslide. In Aknes, approximately 50 million cubic meter of rock mass continuously creeps over a shear zone made of rock fragments, with
seasonal accelerations that strongly correlate with rainfall. In this natural laboratory for fluid-induced frictional creep, unprecedented monitoring equipment reveals low fluid pressure across the shear zone, thereby challenging the dominant theory of fluid-driven instability in landslides. Here, we show that a generic micromechanical model can disentangle the effects of fluid flow from those of fluid pressure, and demonstrate that seepage forces applied by channelized flow along the shear zone are the main driver of creep accelerations. We conclude by discussing the significance of seepage forces, the implications for hazard mitigation and the broader applicability of our model to various geological contexts governed by friction across saturated shear zones.

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