Timing and periodicity of paraglacial rock-slope failures in the Scottish Highlands

• Published in: Geomorphology
• Main Authors: Ballantyne, Colin, Stone, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/timing-and-periodicity-of-paraglacial-rockslope-failures-in-the-scottish-highlands(acf93b10-ba6d-4ab0-a46e-8ff78ffe4721).html; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.12.030

Many formerly-glaciated mountains exhibit a high density of postglacial rock-slope failures (RSFs) in the form of rockslides, rock avalanches or deep-seated gravitational slope deformations. Such RSFs are often termed ‘paraglacial’ as they reflect pre-conditioning by glaciation and deglaciation. The temporal pattern of paraglacial RSFs is unknown. We employ 47 cosmogenic isotope exposure ages obtained for 17 catastrophic RSFs in the Scottish Highlands to test models of changes in RSF frequency since deglaciation. Our results show that RSF activity spans almost the entire postglacial period from ~ 17 ka until ~ 1.5 ka, and that the periodicity of sampled postglacial RSFs is statistically indistinguishable from a pattern of uniform periodicity (~ 1 ka− 1). Our data do not conform to proposed models of declining RSF frequency with time elapsed since deglaciation, but suggest that the temporal distribution of postglacial RSFs is best described by a combination of rapid response (enhanced RSF frequency during or immediately after deglaciation) followed by approximately constant periodicity. Our findings are consistent with near-surface fracturing of rock when glacially-induced confining stresses are removed, causing some failures during or immediately after deglaciation and reducing other slopes to critical conditional stability so that failure is triggered by progressive rock-mass weakening or by transient triggering mechanisms. Neither permafrost degradation (thaw of ice in joints) nor seismic activity offers a general explanation for triggering Scottish RSFs, but could be contributory in some cases. The quasi-constant periodicity inferred for Holocene RSFs implies that the probability of RSFs in this seismically-quiescent intraplate area has not changed in the past ~ 10 ka, and that further (though infrequent) catastrophic RSFs are likely to occur in the future.