The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China triggered many slope failures. Although gigantic slope failures attracted engineering concerns because of the substantial effects to the community, small failures should be investigated as well because of their huge number of occurrence. Moreover, not much has been known about more detailed characteristics of slope failures during earthquakes such as the effects of slope topography. In this regard, the present study carried out 1-G shaking model tests with different intensities of shaking, frequencies applied on model slopes of different shapes.
Test results exhibited effects of shapes on the amplification of motion, location of the initiation of failure, the development of a sliding surface and final shape of failed slope. Also, the validity was studied of the use of a shaking table to research the response and
amplification behavior of some prototype slope. Such information could be used for further evaluation of the slope failure caused by an earthquake in the field and the calculation of landslide displacement. The results are help to show the detailed collapsing behavior of the different shape slope under the earthquake excitations will provide useful data to analyze the failure mechanism and provide valuable references for seismic design of landslide engineering.