Objectives On 8 February 2025 at 11:50 a.m. local time, a catastrophic landslide occurred in Jinpingcun, Mu'ai Town, Junlian County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province, China, resulting in 10 fatalities and 19 missing persons, attracting widespread national and international attention.
Methods This study preliminarily reveals the pre-failure deformation mechanism and geomorphic evolution of the landslide based on multi-source remote sensing imagery, including C-band Sentinel-1 ascending, Fucheng-1 ascending, L-band Lutan-1 descending synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, and multi-temporal optical remote sensing images. Additionally, actively deformation slopes in the surrounding area were detected.
Results A small-scale slope failure event (about 2.4 × 10⁴ m²) occurred at the Jinpingcun landslide site between 28 June 2011 and 5 August 2014. Between 27 September and 31 December 2024, significant geomorphic changes were observed in the landslide body, suggesting possible reactivation. Time-series surface deformation derived from Sentinel-1 ascending, Fucheng-1 ascending and Lutan-1 descending imagery consistently shows an acceleration deformation trend in the Jinpingcun landslide from October to November 2024, with a maximum deformation rate of -166 mm/a, closely aligning with the geomorphic changes revealed by optical imagery.
Conclusions This study highlights the limitations of current geohazard investigation methods in effectively identifying such highly concealed landslide. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a routine monitoring system based on interferometric synthetic aperture radar technology to enable periodic wide-area detection and continuous monitoring of potential landslides in geohazard-prone areas. Such a system would enhance the early detection of potential landslides and provide technological support for landslide prevention and mitigation.
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