Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain
We review recent work on ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain, thus complementing several comprehensive summaries on glacier dams in intracontinental and Arctic areas of low relief. We discuss the roles of tectonic and climatic forcing on ice-, moraine-, and landslide-dam formatio...
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Online Access: | http://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1730/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.10.012 |
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ftustaffordshire:oai:eprints.staffs.ac.uk:1730 2023-05-15T15:13:04+02:00 Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain Korup, Oliver TWEED, Fiona 2007 http://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1730/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.10.012 unknown Elsevier Korup, Oliver and TWEED, Fiona (2007) Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26 (25-28). pp. 3406-3422. ISSN 02773791 F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Article PeerReviewed 2007 ftustaffordshire https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.10.012 2023-03-02T23:14:36Z We review recent work on ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain, thus complementing several comprehensive summaries on glacier dams in intracontinental and Arctic areas of low relief. We discuss the roles of tectonic and climatic forcing on ice-, moraine-, and landslide-dam formation and sudden drainage, and focus on similarities and differences between their geomorphic impacts on confined valleys drained by steep bedrock and gravel-bed rivers. Despite numerous reported failures of natural dams in mountain belts throughout the world, their relevance to long-term dynamics of mountain rivers remains poorly quantified. All types of dams exert local base-level controls, thus trapping incoming sediment and inhibiting fluvial bedrock incision. Pervasive geomorphic and sedimentary evidence of outburst events is preserved even in areas of high erosion rates, suggesting that sudden dam failures are characterized by processes of catastrophic valley-floor aggradation, active-channel widening, and downstream dispersion of sediment, during which little bedrock erosion seems to be achieved. We find that, in the absence of direct evidence of former dams, a number of similarities among the geomorphic and sedimentologic characteristics of catastrophic outburst flows may give rise to ambiguous inferences on the dam-forming process. This is especially the case for tectonically active mountain belts where there is ample and comparable potential for the formation and failure of ice, moraine, landslide, and polygenetic dams concomitant with climatic oscillations or earthquake disturbance. Hence, the palaeoclimatic implications of erroneously inferring the cause of dam formation may be significant. We recommend that future research on natural dams in mountainous terrain addresses (a) climate- and earthquake-controlled systematics in the pattern of formation and failure; (b) quantification of response of mountain rivers to catastrophic outburst events and their concomitant process sequences; (c) elaboration of a ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Staffordshire University: STORE - Staffordshire Online Repository Arctic Quaternary Science Reviews 26 25-28 3406 3422 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Staffordshire University: STORE - Staffordshire Online Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftustaffordshire |
language |
unknown |
topic |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Korup, Oliver TWEED, Fiona Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
topic_facet |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
description |
We review recent work on ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain, thus complementing several comprehensive summaries on glacier dams in intracontinental and Arctic areas of low relief. We discuss the roles of tectonic and climatic forcing on ice-, moraine-, and landslide-dam formation and sudden drainage, and focus on similarities and differences between their geomorphic impacts on confined valleys drained by steep bedrock and gravel-bed rivers. Despite numerous reported failures of natural dams in mountain belts throughout the world, their relevance to long-term dynamics of mountain rivers remains poorly quantified. All types of dams exert local base-level controls, thus trapping incoming sediment and inhibiting fluvial bedrock incision. Pervasive geomorphic and sedimentary evidence of outburst events is preserved even in areas of high erosion rates, suggesting that sudden dam failures are characterized by processes of catastrophic valley-floor aggradation, active-channel widening, and downstream dispersion of sediment, during which little bedrock erosion seems to be achieved. We find that, in the absence of direct evidence of former dams, a number of similarities among the geomorphic and sedimentologic characteristics of catastrophic outburst flows may give rise to ambiguous inferences on the dam-forming process. This is especially the case for tectonically active mountain belts where there is ample and comparable potential for the formation and failure of ice, moraine, landslide, and polygenetic dams concomitant with climatic oscillations or earthquake disturbance. Hence, the palaeoclimatic implications of erroneously inferring the cause of dam formation may be significant. We recommend that future research on natural dams in mountainous terrain addresses (a) climate- and earthquake-controlled systematics in the pattern of formation and failure; (b) quantification of response of mountain rivers to catastrophic outburst events and their concomitant process sequences; (c) elaboration of a ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Korup, Oliver TWEED, Fiona |
author_facet |
Korup, Oliver TWEED, Fiona |
author_sort |
Korup, Oliver |
title |
Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
title_short |
Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
title_full |
Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
title_fullStr |
Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
title_sort |
ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1730/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.10.012 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
Korup, Oliver and TWEED, Fiona (2007) Ice, moraine, and landslide dams in mountainous terrain. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26 (25-28). pp. 3406-3422. ISSN 02773791 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.10.012 |
container_title |
Quaternary Science Reviews |
container_volume |
26 |
container_issue |
25-28 |
container_start_page |
3406 |
op_container_end_page |
3422 |
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1766343666857672704 |