Present structure and prefailure topography of the giant landslide of Köfels

Brückl, Ewald; Brückl, Johanna; Castillo, E.; Heuberger, Helmut

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.201407174

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…400 m below ground at the paleo-slope toe. This significant valleystep presumably caused substantial stress concentrations at the toe of the slope and thus favoured the massive failed volume of about 3.2 km 3 (Brückl et al, 2001). These data and the presence of preferably orientated, east-dipping sliding planes, which are encountered between the village of Köfels and the present-day head-scarp, clearly point to a structural predisposition of this large-scale rock slope collapse.…”

Section: Köfels Rockslidementioning

confidence: 59%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Age distribution of fossil landslides in the Tyrol (Austria) and its surrounding areas

Prager

Zangerl²,

Patzelt

et al. 2008

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Some of the largest mass movements in the Alps cluster spatially in the Tyrol (Austria). Fault-related valley deepening and coalescence of brittle discontinuities structurally controlled the progressive failure and the kinematics of several slopes. To evaluate the spatial and temporal landslide distribution, a first comprehensive compilation of dated mass movements in the Eastern Alps has been made. At present, more than 480 different landslides in the Tyrol and its surrounding areas, including some 120 fossil events, are recorded in a GIS-linked geodatabase. These compiled data show a rather continuous temporal distribution of landslide activities, with (i) some peaks of activity in the early Holocene at about 10 500–9400 cal BP and (ii) in the Tyrol a significant increase of deep-seated rockslides in the Subboreal at about 4200–3000 cal BP. The majority of Holocene mass movements were not directly triggered by deglaciation processes, but clearly took a preparation of some 1000 years, after ice withdrawal, until slopes collapsed. In view of this, several processes that may promote rock strength degradation are discussed. After the Late-Glacial, slope stabilities were affected by stress redistribution and by subcritical crack growth. Fracture propagating processes may have been favoured by glacial loading and unloading, by earthquakes and by pore pressure fluctuations. Repeated dynamic loading, even if at subcritical energy levels, initiates brittle fracture propagation and thus substantially promotes slope instabilities. Compiled age dating shows that several landslides in the Tyrol coincide temporally with the progradation of some larger debris flows in the nearby main valleys and, partially, with glacier advances in the Austrian Central Alps, indicating climatic phases of increased water supply. This gives evidence of elevated pore pressures within the intensely fractured rock masses. As a result, deep-seated gravitational slope deformations are induced by complex and polyphase interactions of lithological and structural parameters, morphological changes, subcritical fracture propagation, variable seismic activity and climatically controlled groundwater flows.

show abstract

Section: Köfels Rockslidementioning

confidence: 59%

“…800 million m 3 ; Tinner et al, 2005) in Switzerland as well as at Köfels (approx. 3200 million m 3 ; Brückl et al, 2001) and Hochmais (approx. 30 million m 3 ; Zangerl et al, 2007) in the Tyrol (Austria).…”

Section: Synopsis Of Data Compilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age distribution of fossil landslides in the Tyrol (Austria) and its surrounding areas

Prager

Zangerl²,

Patzelt

et al. 2008

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This implies that the Chironico landslide is one of the largest landslides in the Alps in crystalline rock, alongside the Köfels landslide with a volume [3.2 km 3 (Abele 1974;Heuberger 1994;Brückl et al 2001), and the Totalp landslide, with a released volume of approximately 600 million m 3 (Abele 1974;Maisch 1981).…”

Section: Runout Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Chironico landslide (Valle Leventina, southern Swiss Alps): age and evolution

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, we focus on the postglacial Chironico landslide in Valle Leventina, the valley of the Ticino river immediately south of the Gotthard pass (southern Swiss Alps). At Chironico, 530 million m 3 of granite gneiss detached from the eastern wall of Valle Leventina and slid along valley-ward dipping foliation joints and fractures. The slide mass was deposited into the valley bottom and blocked the Ticino river, as well as a tributary, the Ticinetto stream, on the opposite side of the valley. Wood fragments found in lacustrine sediments in the slide-dammed upstream lake were previously dated, yielding a minimum age for the landslide of approximately 13,500 cal years BP. Based on the deposit morphology, the landslide was in the past interpreted as being composed of two events. In order to directly date the landslide, ten boulders were dated using the cosmogenic nuclides 10 Be and 36 Cl. Mean exposure ages indicate that the landslide occurred at 13.38 ± 1.03 ka BP, during the Bølling-Allerød interstadial. This implies that the Chironico landslide, one of the few pre-Holocene slides known in Alps, is also the oldest in crystalline rock. With runout modelling using DAN3D we could reproduce the hypothesized singleevent failure scenario, as well as the character and extent of motion of the landslide mass. Both the ages and the modelling suggest that the landslide was released in one event around 3,000 years following deglaciation.

show abstract

“…The frontal part of the landslide will continue to move ahead due to its lower friction (Sørensen and Bauer, 2003). Brückl et al (2001) found three seismic reflectors in the Maurach gorge, which they interpreted to be (1) intact bedrock, (2) prelandslide sediments of the Maurach gorge, and (3) a secondary sliding plane. The uppermost reflector is 950-1000 m a.s.l.…”

Section: Köfels Landslidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Model input data come from Brückl (2001) and Brückl et al (2001), and have been estimated for landslide deposits using the relationship between porosity and bulk modulus of Han et al (1986) (Table 2). Reconstructed topography of the slope, with 100 m contours, prior to failure is taken from Brückl et al (2001). Present day topography comes from 1:25,000 scale maps with Data from Grimstad and Nesdal (1990).…”

Section: Model Input Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Examples of multiple rock-slope collapses from Köfels (Ötz valley, Austria) and western Norway

Hermanns

Blikra

Naumann

et al. 2006

Engineering Geology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper describes the effects of large massive rock-slope failures on subsequent slope stability. Three examples of large rockslope failures from the Austrian Alps and Norway demonstrate that failure increases the probability of further collapses. At Köfels, Austria, a Holocene rock-slope failure several km 3 in size filled the Ötz valley. The morphology of the deposits indicates that at least one subsequent failure occurred along the head scarp of the first failure, most likely a slide of similar size. Debris of the second landslide slid over the older deposits, forming the famous Köfels frictionite. At least three rock-slope failures, all of them in excess of 10 6 m 3 , occurred from the same mountainside within the last 6000-8000 years at Tafjord in western Norway. The most recent of these failures in 1934, triggered a destructive tsunami. Five large failures with volumes z50,000m 3 occurred at Ramnefjell, Norway within 50 years; two of them caused considerable damage and a large number of death due to the formation of destructive tsunamis. Two-dimensional finite element models of rock-slope stability before and after the Köfels and Tafjord landslides show that massive rock-slope failures produce: (a) irregular slopes, parts of which are as steep or steeper than the slope before failure and which represent new zones of instability; and (b) zones of weakness related to slow slope deformation and related cracking.

show abstract

Present structure and prefailure topography of the giant landslide of Köfels

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Age distribution of fossil landslides in the Tyrol (Austria) and its surrounding areas

Age distribution of fossil landslides in the Tyrol (Austria) and its surrounding areas

The Chironico landslide (Valle Leventina, southern Swiss Alps): age and evolution

Examples of multiple rock-slope collapses from Köfels (Ötz valley, Austria) and western Norway

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About