Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada
The pre-historic rock avalanche at Avalanche Lake was a spectacularly mobile rock avalanche that resulted in the largest documented runup of any landslide on earth. The runout of the 200 Mm 3 event was a complex and three-dimensional process that created three distinct depositional lobes. There is s...
Published in: | Canadian Geotechnical Journal |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 2023-12-17T10:47:42+01:00 Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada Aaron, Jordan Hungr, Oldrich 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Geotechnical Journal volume 53, issue 6, page 899-908 ISSN 0008-3674 1208-6010 Civil and Structural Engineering Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology journal-article 2016 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 2023-11-19T13:38:35Z The pre-historic rock avalanche at Avalanche Lake was a spectacularly mobile rock avalanche that resulted in the largest documented runup of any landslide on earth. The runout of the 200 Mm 3 event was a complex and three-dimensional process that created three distinct depositional lobes. There is some controversy as to whether the presence of glacial ice played an important role in the dynamics of this event. To investigate this hypothesis an advanced, three-dimensional numerical landslide runout model was used to reconstruct the dynamics of this event. It was found that a conventional runout model is able to reproduce the bulk characteristics of this event, including its spectacular runup, without accounting for glacial ice. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the factors that control the mobility of this event. It was found that low strength in the source zone, as well as the presence of significant internal strength, is required to reproduce the 600 m runup. This has important implications for the hazard analysis of rock avalanches. It appears as though large-volume rock avalanches can move with a friction angle lower than that expected for dry fragmented rock, and the runout process can be strongly influenced by internal strength. These important factors must be accounted for when performing forward analyses of this type of natural disaster. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northwest Territories Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) Northwest Territories Canada Avalanche Lake ENVELOPE(-127.235,-127.235,62.417,62.417) Canadian Geotechnical Journal 53 6 899 908 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Civil and Structural Engineering Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology |
spellingShingle |
Civil and Structural Engineering Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology Aaron, Jordan Hungr, Oldrich Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
topic_facet |
Civil and Structural Engineering Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology |
description |
The pre-historic rock avalanche at Avalanche Lake was a spectacularly mobile rock avalanche that resulted in the largest documented runup of any landslide on earth. The runout of the 200 Mm 3 event was a complex and three-dimensional process that created three distinct depositional lobes. There is some controversy as to whether the presence of glacial ice played an important role in the dynamics of this event. To investigate this hypothesis an advanced, three-dimensional numerical landslide runout model was used to reconstruct the dynamics of this event. It was found that a conventional runout model is able to reproduce the bulk characteristics of this event, including its spectacular runup, without accounting for glacial ice. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the factors that control the mobility of this event. It was found that low strength in the source zone, as well as the presence of significant internal strength, is required to reproduce the 600 m runup. This has important implications for the hazard analysis of rock avalanches. It appears as though large-volume rock avalanches can move with a friction angle lower than that expected for dry fragmented rock, and the runout process can be strongly influenced by internal strength. These important factors must be accounted for when performing forward analyses of this type of natural disaster. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aaron, Jordan Hungr, Oldrich |
author_facet |
Aaron, Jordan Hungr, Oldrich |
author_sort |
Aaron, Jordan |
title |
Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
title_short |
Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
title_full |
Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the Northwest Territories, Canada |
title_sort |
dynamic analysis of an extraordinarily mobile rock avalanche in the northwest territories, canada |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-127.235,-127.235,62.417,62.417) |
geographic |
Northwest Territories Canada Avalanche Lake |
geographic_facet |
Northwest Territories Canada Avalanche Lake |
genre |
Northwest Territories |
genre_facet |
Northwest Territories |
op_source |
Canadian Geotechnical Journal volume 53, issue 6, page 899-908 ISSN 0008-3674 1208-6010 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2015-0371 |
container_title |
Canadian Geotechnical Journal |
container_volume |
53 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
899 |
op_container_end_page |
908 |
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1785571632976232448 |