Geotechnics for rockfall assessment in the volcanic island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain)

Abstract

The island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) is characterized by a large variability of volcanic rocks reflecting its volcanic evolution. The geological map provided by Geological Survey of Spain at 1:25.000 scale shows more than 109 different lithologies and it is too complex for environmental and engineering purposes. This work presents a simplified geotechnical map with a small number of classes grouping up units with similar geotechnical behaviours. The lithologies were grouped using about 350 rock samples, collected in the seven major islands of the Archipelago. The geotechnical map was used to model rockfall hazard in the entire island of Gran Canaria, where rockfalls are an important threat. The rockfall map was validated with 128 rockfall events along the GC-200 road, located in the NW sector of Gran Canaria. About 96% of the events occurred along sections of the road where the number of expected trajectories is high or moderate.

Keywords

• volcanic environment
• geotechnics
• rockfall
• modelling
• canary islands