InSAR-based characterization of rock glacier movement in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA

• Main Authors: Brencher, George, Handwerger, Alexander L, Munroe, Jeffrey S
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2021
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Oceanography; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9vw341xn

Rock glaciers are a prominent component of many alpine landscapes and constitute a significant water resource in some arid mountain environments. Here, we employ satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) between 2016 and 2019 to identify and monitor active and transitional rock glaciers in the Uinta Mountains (Utah, USA), an area of g 1/43000g km2. We used mean velocity maps to generate an inventory for the Uinta Mountains containing 205 active and transitional rock glaciers. These rock glaciers are 11.9g ha in area on average and located at a mean elevation of 3308g m, where mean annual air temperature is-0.25g g C. The mean downslope velocity for the inventory is 1.94g cmyr-1, but individual rock glaciers have velocities ranging from 0.35 to 6.04g cmyr-1. To search for relationships with climatic drivers, we investigated the time-dependent motion of three rock glaciers. We found that rock glacier motion has a significant seasonal component, with rates that are more than 5 times faster during the late summer compared to the rest of the year. Rock glacier velocities also appear to be correlated with the snow water equivalent of the previous winter's snowpack. Our results demonstrate the ability to use satellite InSAR to monitor rock glaciers over large areas and provide insight into the environmental factors that control their kinematics.