The major challenging scientific task in this project is to unravel the coupling between external factors (groundwater activity related to precipitation and sediment loading) and the high-frequency triggering of small-scale submarine landslides. More specifically, the slope displacement rates, fluid pressure and groundwater tracers will be monitored along different locations using innovative in situ seafloor instruments as part of the EMSO real-time network. Results will enable to assess numerically the probability of failure of the slope in response to external mechanisms.
The MODAL project seeks to address the following major research topics:
1) « Study of precursor phenomena». A major goal of our work is to determine if slope failure precursory signals may be detected through displacement-rate monitoring and pore-pressure measurements.
2) « Better understanding of physical mechanisms that are insufficiently or diversely addressed by different communities ». Our objective is to apprehend the physical mechanisms relating fluids flows, seismicity and sediment deformations.
3) «Improve probabilistic methods for geologic hazard evaluation». This will be rendered by recourse to the combination of in situ data, laboratory and in situ testing, and numerical modelling.
4) « Development and validation of a typical scheme for hazard analysis». MODAL aims at the development and validation of a permanent monitoring system for the Nice study area with an innovative measurement methods of slope displacement rate.