Contribution of GPS to continuous monitoring of landslides. Application tothe Super-Saute earthflow (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France).

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the potential of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements for the continuous monitoring of landslides. The site being studied is the Super-Sauze earthflow (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France). Our results show that GPS measurements allow monitoring of the thr ee-dimensional motion of the earthflow with an hourly temporal resolution a nd a sub-centimeter accuracy. GPS measurements carried out in spring and au tumn show spatial and temporal (seasonal and daily) variations of the lands lide motion. The results presented here show that GPS measurements have the capability of surveying, continuously, the kinematics of geophysical objec ts with small and slow displacements (similar to 5 mm(.)d(-1)) and could th us complement conventional topometric techniques in a warning system. (C) 2 000 Academie des sciencese/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS .