Geomechanics of failures. Advanced topics / Геомеханника разломов. Дополнительные темы

Geotechnical failures, specially the catastrophic ones, are an excellent experience and a source of inspiration to improve our current understanding of phenomena and our procedures and tools for analysis and prediction. This unconventional manner to learn Geomechanics is the essence of this book. In general, Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical text books describe first the concepts and the theoretical developments and then apply them to interpret or solve a particular application. This book has a different approach. The case (a failure) is first described and then an explanation is sought. This approach is developed through a set of steps which can be summarized as follows.
1. Identify the nature of the problem
2. Develop a dedicated and specific formulation of the case, based on established basic concepts. In general, no single existing theory or procedure is available to solve the case at hand.
3. Provide a solution within an acceptable degree of complexity.
4. Extract the fundamental aspects of the problem and highlight its relevance.
The cases selected have been grouped into three main topics: Landslides, Embankments and Dams and Dynamics of Failures. No attempt to provide a comprehensive account of known catastrophic failures has been done. But the cases selected (Vaiont, Aznalcóllar, Brattas-St. Moritz) are rather unique and illustrate a number of relevant and to some extent controversial issues which are of wide interest. <...>