Climatic Zonality of Periglacial Landforms in Mountain Areas

ABSTRACT. The alpine periglacial areas of the world can be divided into three distinctive landscape types dominated by one of the follow-ing: active rock glaciers, active block streams, or gelifluction landforms. These also correspond to distinct climates, the active rock glaciers occurring under co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stuart A. Harris
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1994
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.571.9439
http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic47-2-184.pdf
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT. The alpine periglacial areas of the world can be divided into three distinctive landscape types dominated by one of the follow-ing: active rock glaciers, active block streams, or gelifluction landforms. These also correspond to distinct climates, the active rock glaciers occurring under cold, humid conditions; the active block streams in cold, dry climates; and gelifluction-dominated landforms occurring in warmer areas. These have distinct ranges of mean annual temperature and precipitation, which can be used in interpreting climatic changes based on distribution of fossil landforms. Key words: alpine permafrost, block streams, rock glaciers, gelifluction RÉSUMÉ. On peut diviser les régions périglaciaires alpines du globe en trois types de paysages distincts, dominés par un des éléments suivants: glaciers rocheux actifs, coulées de pierres actives ou reliefs de gélifluxion. Ces éléments correspondent aussi àdes climats distincts, les glaciers rocheux existant dans des conditions de froid et d’humidité; les coulées de pierres actives sous des climats froids et secs; et les reliefs de gélifluxion dans des régions plus tempérées. Ces paysages ont des gammes différentes de moyennes annuelles de températures et de précipitations, qui peuvent servir à interpréter les changements climatiques fondés sur la distribution des reliefs fossiles. Mots clés: pergélisol alpin, coulées de pierre, glaciers rocheux, gélifluxion Traduit pour Arctic par Nésida Loyer.