A temperature- and stress-controlled failure criterion for ice-filled permafrost rock joints ...

• Main Authors: Mamot, Philipp, Weber, Samuel, Schröder, Tanja, Krautblatter, Michael
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2018
• Subjects: Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000302237; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/302237

Instability and failure of high mountain rock slopes have significantly increased since the 1990s coincident with climatic warming and are expected to rise further. Most of the observed failures in permafrost-affected rock walls are likely triggered by the mechanical destabilisation of warming bedrock permafrost including ice-filled joints. The failure of ice-filled rock joints has only been observed in a small number of experiments, often using concrete as a rock analogue. Here, we present a systematic study of the brittle shear failure of ice and rock–ice interfaces, simulating the accelerating phase of rock slope failure. For this, we performed 141 shearing experiments with rock–ice–rock "sandwich"' samples at constant strain rates (10−3s−1) provoking ice fracturing, under normal stress conditions ranging from 100 to 800kPa, representing 4–30m of rock overburden, and at temperatures from −10 to −0.5°C, typical for recent observed rock slope failures in alpine permafrost. To create close to natural but ... : The Cryosphere, 12 (10) ...