Characteristics and causes of landslide deformation along Guizhou Section of Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines

The area along Guizhou Section of Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines is very undulating in terrain with complex and diverse surface morphology, where many kinds of geological disasters are developed under the complicated geological conditions. In particular, the landslide disasters have great safety hazard to the oil and gas pipelines. Herein, the landslide deformation in the areas where the pipelines pass by and corresponding causes were analyzed based on the characteristics of Guizhou Section of Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipeline, including the physical geography, geological environment, regional tectonic landform and rainfall. Meanwhile, physical simulation was performed for the evolution process of typical slopes with small dip angle along the pipelines. According to the research results, the landslides developed along Guizhou Section of Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines are mainly classified into soil landslide and bedded rock landslide, where the dip angle varies greatly; human engineering activities and heavy rainfalls are the main factors inducing landslide.The slope deformation with small dip angle is mainly evolved in the patterns of creeping-cracking and creep-cracking-collapse. Therefore, strengthening the landslide monitoring and early warning along the pipelines could provide important geological information for the stable operation of Guizhou Section of Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipelines.