Deformation instability mechanism of slope in Fa'er Town, Shuicheng County, Guizhou, China

This paper mainly explores the deformation instability mechanism and influencing factors of landslide in a town called Fa'er, in southwestern China’s Guizhou Province. Drawing on the theories of engineering geological mechanics, the exploration was carried out through the analysis of geological data, field investigation, and drone survey. The results show that: The mining of underground coal seams led to multiple tensile cracks on the trailing edge; the fragmented rock and soil mass, as well as the free face on the front edge create a favorable landform for initiating the landslide; the landslide is mainly induced by the heavy rainfall for several consecutive days; under the continuous heavy rainfall, the creep shear zone was penetrated by cracks, and the landslide was pulled by gravity to slide; the deformation mode shifted from creeping-tensile cracking to plastic flow-tensile cracking.