Paraglacial rock-slope stability

McColl, Samuel T.

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.02.015

Cited by 308 publications

(288 citation statements)

References 219 publications

(368 reference statements)

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“…McColl (2012) gives an extensive review of such paraglacial rock-slope instability. Ballantyne and Stone (2013) dated 47 rockslope failures in the Scottish Highlands and reported enhanced incidence immediately after deglaciation, decreasing to a more or less constant rate that has been maintained during the past c. 10 kyr (see also Ballantyne et al, 2014).…”

Section: Accepted Manuscript [Type Here] [Type Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term geomorphological evolution of proglacial systems

2017

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Proglacial systems are amongst the most rapidly changing landscapes on Earth, as glacier mass loss, permafrost degradation and more episodes of intense rainfall progress with climate change. This review addresses the urgent need to quantitatively define proglacial systems not only in terms of spatial extent but also in terms of functional processes. It firstly provides a critical appraisal of prevailing conceptual models of proglacial systems, and uses this to justify compiling data on rates of landform change in terms of planform, horizontal motion, elevation changes and sediment budgets. These data permit us to produce novel summary conceptual diagrams that consider proglacial landscape evolution in terms of a balance of longitudinal and lateral water and sediment fluxes. Throughout, we give examples of newly emerging datasets and data processing methods because these have the potential to assist with the issues of: (i) a lack of knowledge of proglacial systems within high-mountain, arctic and polar regions, (ii) considerable inter-and intracatchment variability in the geomorphology and functioning of proglacial systems, (iii) problems with the magnitude of short-term geomorphological changes being at the threshold of detection, (iv) separating short-term variability from longer-term trends, and (v) of the representativeness of plot-scale field measurements for regionalisation and for upscaling. We consider that understanding of future climate change effects on proglacial systems requires holistic process-based modelling to explicitly consider feedbacks and linkages, especially between hillslope and valley-floor components.Such modelling must be informed by a new generation of repeated distributed topographic surveys to detect and quantify short-term geomorphological changes.

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Section: Accepted Manuscript [Type Here] [Type Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term geomorphological evolution of proglacial systems

2017

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“…This lag-time suggests that, although undercutting by glacial erosion and debuttressing following glacier retreat was likely a process leading to slope destabilization, glacial retreat should be considered as a preparatory factor, rather than a triggering process at the Palliser Rockslide. Other likely preparatory factors leading to failure include stress redistribution and progressive deformation of the rock slope, and "delayed" permafrost degradation (McColl 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2014

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This paper presents the results of a combined study, using cosmogenic 36 Cl exposure dating and terrestrial digital photogrammetry of the Palliser Rockslide located in the southeastern Canadian Rocky Mountains. This site is particularly well-suited to demonstrate how this multi-disciplinary approach can be used to differentiate distinct rocksliding events, estimate their volume, and establish their chronology and recurrence interval. Observations suggest that rocksliding has been ongoing since the late Pleistocene deglaciation. Two major rockslide events have been dated at 10.0±1.2kyr and 7.7±0.8kyr before present, with failure volumes of 40 and 8Mm 3 , respectively. The results have important implications concerning our understanding of the temporal distribution of paraglacial rockslides and rock avalanches; they provide a better understanding of the volumes and failure mechanisms of recurrent failure events; and they represent the first absolute ages of a prehistoric high-magnitude event in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

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“…Numerical modelling of slope failures, incorporating the effects of glacier changes in slope form and stress distribution, may shed light on past and future mass movements in glaciated environments (McColl, 2012). Further, inventories of historical mass movements in glacier and peri-glacial belts could help to identify the geological, topographical, glaciological and thermal conditions associated with slope instabilities, including the possible influence of permafrost thawing (see e.g.…”

Section: Gaps In Our Knowledge and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hazardous processes and events from glacier and permafrost areas: lessons from the Chilean and Argentinean Andes

Anacona

Mackintosh

Norton

2014

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Glacier and permafrost hazards such as glacial-lake outburst floods and rock-ice avalanches cause significant socioeconomic damages worldwide, and these processes may increase in frequency and magnitude if the atmospheric temperature rises. In the extratropical Andes nearly 200 human deaths were linked to these processes during the twentieth century. We analysed bibliographical sources and satellite images to document the glacier and permafrost dynamics that have caused socio-economic damages in this region in historic time (including glacial lake outburst floods, ice and rock-ice avalanches and lahars) to unravel their causes and geomorphological impacts. In the extratropical Andes, at least 15 ice-dammed lakes and 16 moraine-dammed lakes have failed since the eighteenth century, causing dozens of floods. Some floods rank amongst the largest events ever recorded (5000 × 10 6 m 3 and 229 × 10 6 m 3 , respectively). Outburst flood frequency has increased in the last three decades, partially as a consequence of long-term (decades to centuries) climatic changes, glaciers shrinkage, and lake growth. Short-term (days to weeks) meteorological conditions (i.e. intense and/or prolonged rainfall and high temperature that increased meltwater production) have also triggered outburst floods and mass movements. Enormous mass failures of glaciers and permafrost (> 10 × 10 6 m 3 ) have impacted lakes, glaciers, and snow-covered valleys, initiating chain reactions that have ultimately resulted in lake tsunamis and far-reaching (> 50 km) flows. The eruption of ice-covered volcanoes has also caused dozens of damaging lahars with volumes up to 45 × 10 6 m 3 . Despite the importance of these events, basic information about their occurrence (e.g. date, causes, and geomorphological impact), which is well established in other mountain ranges, is absent in the extratropical Andes. A better knowledge of the processes involved can help to forecast and mitigate these events.

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Paraglacial rock-slope stability

Cited by 308 publications

References 219 publications

Short-term geomorphological evolution of proglacial systems

Short-term geomorphological evolution of proglacial systems

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

Hazardous processes and events from glacier and permafrost areas: lessons from the Chilean and Argentinean Andes

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