ABSTRACT
The Güney Waterfall in Denizli was ruptured by the The 21st July 2003 Buldan earthquake with magnitude 5.6. The ruptured block toppled after 10 years and traveled towards the reservoir of Cindere Dam more than 132 m. The authors attempt to clarify the mechanism and process of the toppling failure of the ruptured block. The authors attempt to analyse the failure process in fundamentally in three stages. The first stage is the initial failure caused by the earthquake. The second stage is the growth of the ruptured block and progress of degradation at the toe of the failed block. Third stage is the final collapse and movement in the valley towards the Cindere Dam reservoir. The pre-rupture stage before the Buldan earthquake and post-rupture and final collapse conditions are analysed through some analytical and numerical techniques to understand the fundamental causes of the failure, which took more than 10 years. This is study is unique in a sense it involves slow and rapid dynamic processes. The authors present the results of the various studies and investigations undertaken so far and and they discuss their implications.
