The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland
Abstract As consequence of ongoing climate change, permafrost degradation is thought to be increasingly affecting slope stability in periglacial environments. This is of growing concern in Iceland, where in the last decade, permafrost degradation has been identified among the triggering factors of l...
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 2023-05-15T16:36:52+02:00 The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland Morino, Costanza Conway, Susan J. Balme, Matthew R. Helgason, Jón Kristinn Sæmundsson, Þorsteinn Jordan, Colm Hillier, John Argles, Tom Natural Environment Research Council British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative Studentship Agence Nationale de la Recherche Région Pays de la Loire, project GeoPlaNet 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Landslides volume 18, issue 8, page 2785-2812 ISSN 1612-510X 1612-5118 Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 2022-01-04T14:56:20Z Abstract As consequence of ongoing climate change, permafrost degradation is thought to be increasingly affecting slope stability in periglacial environments. This is of growing concern in Iceland, where in the last decade, permafrost degradation has been identified among the triggering factors of landslides. The role of ground ice in conditioning the morphology and dynamics of landslides involving loose deposits is poorly understood. We show the geomorphological impact of the Móafellshyrna and Árnesfjall landslides that recently occurred in ice-cemented talus deposits in northern Iceland. Using field and aerial remote-sensing measurements of the morphological and morphometric characteristics of the landslides, we assess the influence of thawing ground ice on their propagation style and dynamics. The two mass movements are complex and are similar to rock- and debris-ice avalanches, changing trajectory and exhibiting evidence of transitioning their style of motion from a dry granular mass to a debris flow-like movement via multiple pulses. We infer that the thawing of ground ice together with the entrainment of saturated material provided the extra fluid causing this change in dynamics. The hazardous consequences of permafrost degradation will increasingly affect mountain regions in the future, and ground-ice thaw in steep terrain is a particularly hazardous phenomenon, as it may induce unexpected long-runout failures and can cause slope instability to continue even after the landslide event. Our study expands our knowledge of how landslides develop in unstable ice-cemented deposits and will aid assessment and mitigation of the hazard that they pose in Iceland and other mountainous periglacial areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Iceland permafrost Springer Nature (via Crossref) Árnesfjall ENVELOPE(-21.576,-21.576,66.002,66.002) Landslides |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology |
spellingShingle |
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology Morino, Costanza Conway, Susan J. Balme, Matthew R. Helgason, Jón Kristinn Sæmundsson, Þorsteinn Jordan, Colm Hillier, John Argles, Tom The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
topic_facet |
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology |
description |
Abstract As consequence of ongoing climate change, permafrost degradation is thought to be increasingly affecting slope stability in periglacial environments. This is of growing concern in Iceland, where in the last decade, permafrost degradation has been identified among the triggering factors of landslides. The role of ground ice in conditioning the morphology and dynamics of landslides involving loose deposits is poorly understood. We show the geomorphological impact of the Móafellshyrna and Árnesfjall landslides that recently occurred in ice-cemented talus deposits in northern Iceland. Using field and aerial remote-sensing measurements of the morphological and morphometric characteristics of the landslides, we assess the influence of thawing ground ice on their propagation style and dynamics. The two mass movements are complex and are similar to rock- and debris-ice avalanches, changing trajectory and exhibiting evidence of transitioning their style of motion from a dry granular mass to a debris flow-like movement via multiple pulses. We infer that the thawing of ground ice together with the entrainment of saturated material provided the extra fluid causing this change in dynamics. The hazardous consequences of permafrost degradation will increasingly affect mountain regions in the future, and ground-ice thaw in steep terrain is a particularly hazardous phenomenon, as it may induce unexpected long-runout failures and can cause slope instability to continue even after the landslide event. Our study expands our knowledge of how landslides develop in unstable ice-cemented deposits and will aid assessment and mitigation of the hazard that they pose in Iceland and other mountainous periglacial areas. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council British Geological Survey University Funding Initiative Studentship Agence Nationale de la Recherche Région Pays de la Loire, project GeoPlaNet |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Morino, Costanza Conway, Susan J. Balme, Matthew R. Helgason, Jón Kristinn Sæmundsson, Þorsteinn Jordan, Colm Hillier, John Argles, Tom |
author_facet |
Morino, Costanza Conway, Susan J. Balme, Matthew R. Helgason, Jón Kristinn Sæmundsson, Þorsteinn Jordan, Colm Hillier, John Argles, Tom |
author_sort |
Morino, Costanza |
title |
The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
title_short |
The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
title_full |
The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
title_fullStr |
The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
The impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern Iceland |
title_sort |
impact of ground-ice thaw on landslide geomorphology and dynamics: two case studies in northern iceland |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1/fulltext.html |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-21.576,-21.576,66.002,66.002) |
geographic |
Árnesfjall |
geographic_facet |
Árnesfjall |
genre |
Ice Iceland permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice Iceland permafrost |
op_source |
Landslides volume 18, issue 8, page 2785-2812 ISSN 1612-510X 1612-5118 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01661-1 |
container_title |
Landslides |
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1766027185521426432 |