The application and implications of rock weathering‐rind dating to a large rock avalanche, Craigieburn Range, Canterbury, New Zealand

Orwin, John F.

doi:10.1080/00288306.1998.9514806

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…4) potentially earthquakegenerated events (e.g. Whitehouse and Griffiths 1983;Bull and Brandon 1998;Orwin 1998;Smith et al 2006;Chevalier et al 2009) that may, in many instances, exhibit failure along planes of weakness, with prevalent regional bedding and schistosity dipdirection towards the west/northwest or east/southeast (Cox and Barrell 2007). The fact that modal hillslope angles do not differ significantly between western and axial domains of the Alps (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Studies have examined slope failures associated with earthquakes (e.g. Speight 1933;Adams 1981;Bull and Brandon 1998;Orwin 1998) or affecting road construction (Paterson 1996). Other detailed works describe individual rock avalanches that initiated from high-elevation bedrock slopes about the drainage divide (Main Divide) crest during the past 20 years, including the catastrophic summit collapse of New Zealand's highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook (McSaveney 2002;Hancox et al 2005;Cox and Allen 2009).…”

Section: Original Papermentioning

confidence: 97%

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Rock avalanches and other landslides in the central Southern Alps of New Zealand: a regional study considering possible climate change impacts

2010

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Slope instabilities in the central Southern Alps, New Zealand, are assessed in relation to their geological and topographic distribution, with emphasis given to the spatial distribution of the most recent failures relative to zones of possible permafrost degradation and glacial recession. Five hundred nine mostly late-Pleistocene-to Holocene-aged landslides have been identified, affecting 2% of the study area. Rock avalanches were distinguished in the dataset, being the dominant failure type from Alpine slopes about and east of the Main Divide of the Alps, while other landslide types occur more frequently at lower elevations and from schist slopes closer to the Alpine Fault. The pre-1950 landslide record is incomplete, but mapped failures have prevailed from slopes facing west-northwest, suggesting a structural control on slope failure distribution. Twenty rock avalanches and large rockfalls are known to have fallen since 1950, predominating from extremely steep east-southeast facing slopes, mostly from the hanging wall of the Main Divide Fault Zone. Nineteen occurred within 300 vertical metres above or below glacial ice; 13 have source areas within 300 vertical metres of the estimated lower permafrost boundary, where degrading permafrost is expected. The prevalence of recent failures occurring from glacier-proximal slopes and from slopes near the lower permafrost limit is demonstrably higher than from other slopes about the Main Divide. Many recent failures have been smaller than those recorded pre-1950, and the influence of warming may be ephemeral and difficult to demonstrate relative to simultaneous effects of weather, erosion, seismicity, and uplift along an active plate margin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Original Papermentioning

confidence: 97%

Rock avalanches and other landslides in the central Southern Alps of New Zealand: a regional study considering possible climate change impacts

2010

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“…Three other rock avalanche deposits (Craigieburn- Orwin 1998, Acheron-Smith et al 2006, Leith Hill-Whitehouse 1983) are located within 10 km of the LCRAD site (Fig. 1b).…”

Section: Glacial Historymentioning

confidence: 96%

Successive Holocene rock avalanches at Lake Coleridge, Canterbury, New Zealand

2009

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At Lake Coleridge, Canterbury, New Zealand, at least three rock avalanches have been released from a single source area during the Holocene. The first of these was of 10 7 m 3 volume and dates to about 9,750 BP, and two with volumes 5×10 5 and 4×10 4 m 3 occurred about 700 BP. All three crossed the course of the Ryton River; the latter two were emplaced within the part of the first that had subsequently been eroded by the Ryton River. All three were most likely triggered by, or related to, seismicity. The first rock avalanche formed a long-lived landslide dam, and no evidence remains to indicate whether its eventual failure was catastrophic. The second formed a correspondingly smaller dam, but there is no evidence that its lake was long-lived; however, a set of anomalously steep outwash terraces downstream of the landslide deposits show that it failed catastrophically. A camping ground is sited about 1 km downstream of the landslide deposits, and proposals to develop it further risk potentially severe hazards from future rock avalanche activity at the site.

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“…They are typical of about 50 such rock avalanches (with associated deposits, and therefore post-glacial) greater than 1 × 10 6 m 3 in volume reported in Canterbury ( Figure 12) by Whitehouse (1983). The Acheron and Craigieburn landslide events are related to seismic activity on the Porters Pass-Amberley fault zone that passes nearby (Orwin, 1998;Smith, 2003), and the whole of the central Southern Alps is susceptible to severe shaking at 200-300 year intervals from the Alpine fault (Figure 12). In a different setting, Figure 11 shows the headscarp and deposit of a 2 × 10 9 m 3 rock avalanche in the seismically active northern Caucasas mountains, and again the bowl-like shape of the source area depression is clear.…”

Section: Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Craigieburn coseismic rock avalanche (Orwin, 1998). All four of these Canterbury, New Zealand, examples lie within a 5 km radius and are formed in greywacke of the Torlesse Supergroup.…”

Section: Examplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mass movement origin for cirques

Turnbull¹,

Davies

2006

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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The glacial process of cirque initiation, whereby small initial hillslope hollows grow by nivation until snow can form glacier ice, and ice motion then enlarges the hollow to a fully developed cirque, appears to have difficulty explaining the creation of large cirques in the time available during Quaternary glaciations, at the rates at which glaciers are reported to erode rock, and in rapidly uplifting mountain ranges. It also has difficulty explaining the striking proliferation of cirques in Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand, an area of harder rock and less glaciation than the nearby cirque-poor area of South Westland. Here we show that cirques can be initiated as large, deep-seated, often coseismic rock slope failure source area depressions in which snow may accumulate to form cirque glaciers, which can then remove detritus from, smooth, and enlarge the cirque. We present an example of a classically shaped cirque that has never held a glacier. We show that many similarities between the locations, sizes and shapes of rock slope failure source area depressions and cirques are understandable on this basis, as is the occurrence of cirques in presently aseismic intraplate locations and their relative paucity in actively uplifting ranges. The extent to which cirques may be of mass movement origin has implications for their value as palaeoclimatic indicators.

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The application and implications of rock weathering‐rind dating to a large rock avalanche, Craigieburn Range, Canterbury, New Zealand

Cited by 16 publications

References 12 publications

Rock avalanches and other landslides in the central Southern Alps of New Zealand: a regional study considering possible climate change impacts

Rock avalanches and other landslides in the central Southern Alps of New Zealand: a regional study considering possible climate change impacts

Successive Holocene rock avalanches at Lake Coleridge, Canterbury, New Zealand

A mass movement origin for cirques

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