From Taiwan to Tibet: Expanding the Real-time Landquake Monitoring System (RLAMS) for Glacier Collapse Events
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64862/ajeg.2025.2sp.96.233Keywords:
RLAMS, Landquakes, Seismic waveform inversion, Glacier collapseAbstract
The Real-time Landquake Monitoring System (RLAMS) has been operated in Taiwan since 2015, was developed to automatically detect, locate, and characterize large-scale (volume exceeding 106 m3) landquakes (landslide, rock avalanche, glacier collapse) using real-time seismic signals. Integrating full seismic waveform inversion and location approach, RLAMS provides near-real-time estimation of source location, magnitude, and sliding force dynamics. This system has been successfully implemented for monitoring recent landquake events in Taiwan, where intense rainfall and seismic activity frequently trigger catastrophic slope failures. In particular, RLAMS was directly applied to the 2025 Matai’an landslide in eastern Taiwan, which formed a large landslide dam. The subsequent dam-break flood caused severe downstream devastation, resulting in 19 fatalities, 5 missing people, and 157 injuries. The seismic inversion approach adopted in RLAMS has also been applied to analyze the 2016 twin Aru Glacier collapses on the Tibetan Plateau and the 2022 Bukadaban East Glacier collapse (Xinqingfeng Ice Cap), unraveling source failure mechanisms for these catastrophic ice–mass movements. Based on above applications, this study proposes the new development of an RLAMS network in the Tibet region (Tibet-RLAMS), which will enable real-time detection and monitoring of future glacier collapses and other large gravitational mass-wasting processes across the plateau utilizing seismic waveform data provided by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Data Management Center (IRIS-DMC).
References
Chao, W. A., Wu, T. R., Ma, K. F., Kuo, Y. T., Wu, Y. M., Zhao, L., Chung, M. J., Wu, H., and Tsai, Y. L. (2018). The large Greenland landslide of 2017: Was a tsunami warning possible? Seismological Research Letters, 89(4), 1335–1344. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220170160
Chao, W. A., Wu, Y. M., Zhao, L., Chen, H., Chen, Y. G., Chang, J. M., and Lin, C. M. (2017). A first near real-time seismology-based landquake monitoring system. Scientific Reports, 7, 43510. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep43510
Chao, W. A., Zhao, L., Chen, S. C., Wu, Y. M., Chen, C. H., and Huang, H. H. (2016). Seismology-based early identification of dam-formation landquake events. Scientific Reports, 6, 19259. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep19259
Cook, K. L., Rekapalli, R., Dietze, M., Pilz, M., Cesca, S., Rao, N. P., Srinagesh, D., Paul, H., Metz, M., Mandal, P., Suresh, G., Cotton, F., Tiwari, V. M., and Hovius, N. (2021). Detection and potential early warning of catastrophic flow events with regional seismic networks. Science, 374(6563), 87–92. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj1227
Kääb, A., Leinss, S., Gilbert, A., Bühler, Y., Gascoin, S., Evans, S. G., Bartelt, P., Berthier, E., Brun, F., Chao, W.-A., Farinotti, D., Gimbert, F., Guo, W., Huggel, C., Kargel, J. S., Leonard, G., Tian, L., Treichler, D., and Yao, T. (2018). Massive collapse of two glaciers in western Tibet in 2016 after surge-like instability. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0039-7
Kääb, A., Aga, J., Treichler, D., Girod, L., and Chao, W. A. (2025). Recent giant glacier detachment in Tibet suggests polythermal ice damage mechanism. The Cryosphere (resubmission).
Schöpa, A., Chao, W. A., Lipovsky, B., Hovius, N., White, R. S., Green, R. G., and Turowski, J. M. (2018). Dynamics of the Askja Caldera July 2014 landslide from seismic signal analysis: Precursor, motion and aftermath. Earth Surface Dynamics, 6(2), 467–485. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-467-2018
Weng, M. C., Lin, C. H., Shiu, W. J., Chao, W. A., Chiu, C. C., Lee, C. F., Huang, W. K., and Yang, C. M. (2021). Towards a rapid assessment of highway slope disasters by using multidisciplinary techniques. Landslides, 19, 687–701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01808-0
Yang, C. M., Chang, J.-M., Hung, C. Y., Lu, C. H., Chao, W. A., and Kang, K. H. (2022). Life span of landslide dam on mountain valley caught on seismic signals and its possible early warnings. Landslides, 19, 637–646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01818-y
Yang, C. M., Chao, W.-A., Weng, M.-C., Fu, Y.-Y., Chang, J.-M., Huang, W.-K., and GeoPORT Working Group. (2022). Outburst debris flow of Yusui Stream caused by a large-scale Silabaku landslide, southern Taiwan. Landslides, 19, 1807–1811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-022-01888-6
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Nepal Society of Engineering Geology (NSEG)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
