Origin and weathering of landslide material in a loess area: a geochemical study of the Kulcs landslide, Hungary

Udvardi, Beatrix and Kovács, István János and Szabó, Csaba and Falus, György and Újvári, Gábor and Besnyi, Anikó and Bertalan, Éva and Budai, Ferenc and Horváth, Zsolt (2016) Origin and weathering of landslide material in a loess area: a geochemical study of the Kulcs landslide, Hungary. Environmental Earth Sciences, 75. p. 1299. ISSN 1866-6280

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Abstract

Geochemical characteristics of sediments are responses to physical and chemical alteration in landslides. However, consequences of in situ interactions associated with landslides are difficult to distinguish from those related to long-term weathering in young soft sediments such as loess. In this study, geochemical characteristics of the Kulcs landslide in Hungary are studied to identify the provenance of the loess–paleosol–red clay sequence and geochemical signatures that can potentially be attributed to the effects of landsliding. Results indicate that sliding is largely initiated by the lithological changes within the landslide body. Sediments above the sliding zone closely resemble the nonslipped Pleistocene old loess deposits from Hungary. It is also confirmed that the sliding zone develops in old paleosols in the loess sequence and red clays at its base which are all characterized by the enrichment of Al, K, Na, H2O and considerable depletion in Ca and Mg associated with carbonates. Altogether, these geochemical characteristics indicate that chemical weathering trend of unconsolidated landslide sediments is slightly modified by the redistribution of carbonates and decomposition of plagioclase. It is assumed that the distribution ofMnand Ba is modified by the water–sediment interaction in the landslide.

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