Cosmogenic 10Be dating of a sackung and its faulted rock glaciers, in the Alps of Savoy (France)

Paraglacial rock-slope stability

“…In particular, terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide concentrations (originating from cosmic ray bombardment) have been used to date landslide debris (Ballantyne et al, 1998;Ballantyne and Stone, 2004;Bigot-Cormier et al, 2005;Hippolyte et al, 2006;Mitchell et al, 2007;Cossart et al, 2008;El Bedoui et al, 2009;Hippolyte et al, 2009;Sanchez et al, 2009;Shroder et al, 2010). Radiocarbon as well as tephrachronology and optically stimulated luminescence methods have also been applied (Beget, 1985;André, 1986;André, 1997;Watanabe et al, 1998;Smith, 2001;Soldati et al, 2004;Ballantyne, 2008;Agliardi et al, 2009a;Pánek et al, 2009;Borgatti and Soldati, 2010;Pánek et al, 2011).…”

“…Creep failure is a common feature of steep mountain slopes and many creep features (or sackungen) have been identified in deglaciated valleys (Bovis, 1982;Bovis and Stewart, 1998;Holm et al, 2004;Agliardi et al, 2009a;Hippolyte et al, 2009;Pánek et al, 2009). There is little evidence for slope deformation during glacier occupation, as rates of slope deformation at the ice-rock interface are extremely difficult to measure.…”

Reconstruction of the history of the Palliser Rockslide based on 36Cl terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating and debris volume estimations

“…Ballantyne and Stone (2003) proved that the long run-out of the Beinn Alligin, Scotland, was not due to the presence of a residual glacier underneath the rock debris. Studies by El Bedoui et al (2009) andHippolyte et al (2009), using TCN dating, support the upslope propagation of deep-seated gravitational slope deformations. Hermanns et al (2012), on the other hand, demonstrated the advancing deformation style of a rockslide and its paleo slip rates.…”

Suhard Massif. A geomorphological study

“…Sîrcu (1979) questions the formation of these features as a result of snow activity, and more recently, Mîndrescu and Cristea (2011) use the term sackung (antislope scarps/slope pockets) to denominate them, and believe they resulted from gravitational deformation and reconfiguration by snow. Sackungs are the largest gravitational deformations observed in mountains and are characterized by the long-term slowness of the movements, but their mechanism is still not well understood; however, cosmic ray exposure (CRE) dating methods allow dating the morphologic structures involved in sackung and can contribute at the understanding of their origin (Hippolyte et al, 2009). This category of forms includes two examples deserving of special attention, i.e.…”