Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area
The 17 June 2017 rock avalanche in the Karrat Fjord, West Greenland, caused a tsunami that flooded the nearby village of Nuugaatsiaq and killed four people. The disaster was entirely unexpected since no previous records of large rock slope failures were known in the region, and it highlighted the ne...
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Copernicus Publications
2020
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00055168 2024-09-15T18:09:44+00:00 Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area Svennevig, Kristian Dahl-Jensen, Trine Keiding, Marie Merryman Boncori, John Peter Larsen, Tine B. Salehi, Sara Munck Solgaard, Anne Voss, Peter H. 2020-12 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00055168 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00054819/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/1021/2020/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications Earth Surface Dynamics -- http://www.earth-surf-dynam.net/ -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2736054 -- 2196-632X https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00055168 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00054819/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/1021/2020/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2020 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 2024-06-26T04:41:37Z The 17 June 2017 rock avalanche in the Karrat Fjord, West Greenland, caused a tsunami that flooded the nearby village of Nuugaatsiaq and killed four people. The disaster was entirely unexpected since no previous records of large rock slope failures were known in the region, and it highlighted the need for better knowledge of potentially hazardous rock slopes in remote Arctic regions. The aim of the paper is to explore our ability to detect and locate unstable rock slopes in remote Arctic regions with difficult access. We test this by examining the case of the 17 June 2017 Karrat rock avalanche. The workflow we apply is based on a multidisciplinary analysis of freely available data comprising seismological records, Sentinel-1 spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data, and Landsat and Sentinel-2 optical satellite imagery, ground-truthed with limited fieldwork. Using this workflow enables us to reconstruct a timeline of rock slope failures on the coastal slope here collectively termed the Karrat Landslide Complex. Our analyses show that at least three recent rock avalanches occurred in the Karrat Landslide Complex: Karrat 2009, Karrat 2016, and Karrat 2017. The latter is the source of the abovementioned tsunami, whereas the first two are described here in detail for the first time. All three are interpreted as having initiated as dip-slope failures. In addition to the recent rock avalanches, older rock avalanche deposits are observed, demonstrating older (Holocene) periods of activity. Furthermore, three larger unstable rock slopes that may pose a future hazard are described. A number of non-tectonic seismic events confined to the area are interpreted as recording rock slope failures. The structural setting of the Karrat Landslide Complex, namely dip slope, is probably the main conditioning factor for the past and present activity, and, based on the temporal distribution of events in the area, we speculate that the possible trigger for rock slope failures is permafrost degradation caused by climate warming. ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Nuugaatsiaq permafrost Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Earth Surface Dynamics 8 4 1021 1038 |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Svennevig, Kristian Dahl-Jensen, Trine Keiding, Marie Merryman Boncori, John Peter Larsen, Tine B. Salehi, Sara Munck Solgaard, Anne Voss, Peter H. Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
The 17 June 2017 rock avalanche in the Karrat Fjord, West Greenland, caused a tsunami that flooded the nearby village of Nuugaatsiaq and killed four people. The disaster was entirely unexpected since no previous records of large rock slope failures were known in the region, and it highlighted the need for better knowledge of potentially hazardous rock slopes in remote Arctic regions. The aim of the paper is to explore our ability to detect and locate unstable rock slopes in remote Arctic regions with difficult access. We test this by examining the case of the 17 June 2017 Karrat rock avalanche. The workflow we apply is based on a multidisciplinary analysis of freely available data comprising seismological records, Sentinel-1 spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data, and Landsat and Sentinel-2 optical satellite imagery, ground-truthed with limited fieldwork. Using this workflow enables us to reconstruct a timeline of rock slope failures on the coastal slope here collectively termed the Karrat Landslide Complex. Our analyses show that at least three recent rock avalanches occurred in the Karrat Landslide Complex: Karrat 2009, Karrat 2016, and Karrat 2017. The latter is the source of the abovementioned tsunami, whereas the first two are described here in detail for the first time. All three are interpreted as having initiated as dip-slope failures. In addition to the recent rock avalanches, older rock avalanche deposits are observed, demonstrating older (Holocene) periods of activity. Furthermore, three larger unstable rock slopes that may pose a future hazard are described. A number of non-tectonic seismic events confined to the area are interpreted as recording rock slope failures. The structural setting of the Karrat Landslide Complex, namely dip slope, is probably the main conditioning factor for the past and present activity, and, based on the temporal distribution of events in the area, we speculate that the possible trigger for rock slope failures is permafrost degradation caused by climate warming. ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Svennevig, Kristian Dahl-Jensen, Trine Keiding, Marie Merryman Boncori, John Peter Larsen, Tine B. Salehi, Sara Munck Solgaard, Anne Voss, Peter H. |
author_facet |
Svennevig, Kristian Dahl-Jensen, Trine Keiding, Marie Merryman Boncori, John Peter Larsen, Tine B. Salehi, Sara Munck Solgaard, Anne Voss, Peter H. |
author_sort |
Svennevig, Kristian |
title |
Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
title_short |
Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
title_full |
Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
title_fullStr |
Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evolution of events before and after the 17 June 2017 rock avalanche at Karrat Fjord, West Greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote Arctic area |
title_sort |
evolution of events before and after the 17 june 2017 rock avalanche at karrat fjord, west greenland – a multidisciplinary approach to detecting and locating unstable rock slopes in a remote arctic area |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00055168 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00054819/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/1021/2020/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf |
genre |
Greenland Nuugaatsiaq permafrost |
genre_facet |
Greenland Nuugaatsiaq permafrost |
op_relation |
Earth Surface Dynamics -- http://www.earth-surf-dynam.net/ -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2736054 -- 2196-632X https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00055168 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00054819/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/1021/2020/esurf-8-1021-2020.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-1021-2020 |
container_title |
Earth Surface Dynamics |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1021 |
op_container_end_page |
1038 |
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1810447332024516608 |