3 rd Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Zürich, 2005 1 The Monte Rosa east face, Italian Alps, is one of the

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Monte Rosa; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.541.7246; http://geoscience-meeting.scnatweb.ch/sgm2005/SGM05_abstracts/11_Natural_hazards/11_PDF/Fischer_talk.pdf

hanging glaciers and permafrost cover large parts of it. Since the end of the Little Ice Age (about 1850), the hanging glaciers and firn fields have retreated continuously. During the recent decades, the ice cover of the Monte Rosa east face experienced an accelerated and drastic loss in extent. Some glaciers have totally disappeared leaving large parts of the underlying rock unprotected against mechanical and thermal erosion. Enhanced rock fall and debris flow activity was observed (Haeberli et al., 2002; Kääb et al., 2004; Fischer, 2004). Perennially frozen rock walls are highly complex sys-tems that may react very sensitively on changes. Those changes in glacier extent, permafrost condi-tions, thermal and hydrological regimes, as related to