At 21.19 on 8 August 2017, an Ms 7.0 earthquake struck the Jiuzhaigou scenic spot in northwestern Sichuan Province, China. The Jiuzhaigou earthquake is a strike-slip earthquake with a focal depth of 20 km at 33.20° N and 103.82° E, and was caused by two concealed faults. According to emergency investigations and remote sensing interpretations, the Jiuzhaigou earthquake triggered 1780 landslides, damaged one dam (Nuorilang Waterfall) and broke one dam (Huohua Lake). The landslides mainly occurred in the Rize Valley and Shuzheng Valley and in Jiuzhai Paradise. The landslides involved hanging wall and back-slope effects, and the slope angle, slope aspect, seismic faults and valley trend were obviously related to the occurrence of the landslides. Specifically, most of the landslides were shallow landslides, rockfalls and rock avalanches and were small in scale. The failure modes of landslides mainly include wedge rock mass failure, residual deposit failure, relaxed rock mass failure and weathered rock mass failure. The initial low stability of the dam coupled with the topographic effect, back-slope effect and excess pore water pressure led to damage to the Nuorilang Waterfall dam.

On 1 June 2022, a magnitude Ms 6.1 (Mw 5.8) earthquake, named the 2022 Lushan earthquake, struck the southern segment of the Longmenshan fault zone, with an epicenter at 30.395°N, 102.958°E and a focal depth of approximately 12.0 km. To gain insight into the landslides triggered by this event and the characteristics of coseismic landslides in the Longmenshan fault zone, we collected multitemporal satellite images and carried out field investigations. The results reveal that the 2022 Lushan event triggered at least 1288 landslides over an affected area of 1470 km². The total landslide area is 5.33 km², and the highest landslide concentration reaches 22.3 landslides/km². The landslide distribution has a hanging wall effect, and the right bank area of the Qingyi River, featuring deep-cutting gorges, is part of an area with obvious concentrated landslides; this area consists mainly of intrusive rocks, including granite, gabbro and hornblende. The coseismic landslides in the Longmenshan fault zone have hanging wall effects, and the landslides triggered by the 2022 Lushan event are distributed in higher and steeper areas.