Structural study of a deep-seated rock landslide using seismic noise

The seismic noise measurement is widely used to investigate soil slopes due to their sensitivity to changes in material properties and their ability to investigate subsurface features at greater depths, but its application to deep rock landslides remains underexplored. Here, we apply the seismic noise measurement to investigate the geological structure of a deep rock landslide, the Tizicao (TZC) landslide. We deployed 107 single-station seismic noise monitoring sites across the TZC landslide and integrated the data with borehole information and other geophysical techniques, including multichannel analysis of surface waves and electrical resistivity tomography. The inversion process couples multiple methods to develop a three-dimensional geological model of the TZC landslide, which will benefit in estimating the location of the sliding surface. Meanwhile, the landslide volume can be calculated more accurately. Our results demonstrate that seismic noise measurements are an efficient, nondestructive, and rapid technique suitable for characterizing large, deep rock landslides. This approach not only improves our ability to simulate such landslides with greater accuracy but also contributes to providing reliable early warning and landslide management strategies.