An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery
Little is known about the presence, distribution, age, or activity of rock glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains of western Canada. Reflecting debris accumulation and mass wasting under a periglacial climate, these rock glaciers describe a geomorphic response to permafrost regimes that ma...
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ftuvicpubl:oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/12630 2023-05-15T14:14:37+02:00 An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery Charbonneau, Ansley A. Smith, Dan J. 2018 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12630 https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 en eng Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research Charbonneau, A. A. & Smith, D. J. (2012). An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 50(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12630 Article 2018 ftuvicpubl https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 2022-05-19T06:10:46Z Little is known about the presence, distribution, age, or activity of rock glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains of western Canada. Reflecting debris accumulation and mass wasting under a periglacial climate, these rock glaciers describe a geomorphic response to permafrost regimes that may or may not presently exist. An inventory of rock glacier landforms in the eastern front ranges of the Coast Mountains, using high-resolution Google Earth imagery, documented 165 rock glaciers between lat. 50°10ʹ and 52°08ʹ N. The majority of these rock glaciers occur at sites positioned between 1,900 and 2,300 m above sea level, where rain shadow effects and continental air masses result in persistent dry, cold conditions. Morphology and field observation suggest that these features contain intact ice. The rock glaciers occupy predominately northwest- to northeast-facing slopes, with talus-derived rock glaciers largely restricted to north-facing slopes. Glacier-derived features outnumber talus-derived features by a ratio of 5:1. Several of the inventoried rock glaciers were located up valley from presumed Younger Dryas terminal moraines, indicating that they formed after 9390 BP. Dendrogeomorphological investigations at one rock glacier record contemporary activity that resulted in 1.3 cm/yr of frontal advance since AD 1674. This inventory is the first to document the presence of rock glaciers in the Coast Mountains and supports preliminary understandings of permafrost distribution in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera. Research funding was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant to Smith. We thank Øyvind Paasche and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful insights and suggestions for improvement on an earlier version of the manuscript. Special thanks are offered to Bryan Mood and Vikki St-Hilaire for their assistance in the field. Faculty Reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Ice permafrost University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Canada Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 50 1 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace |
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ftuvicpubl |
language |
English |
description |
Little is known about the presence, distribution, age, or activity of rock glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains of western Canada. Reflecting debris accumulation and mass wasting under a periglacial climate, these rock glaciers describe a geomorphic response to permafrost regimes that may or may not presently exist. An inventory of rock glacier landforms in the eastern front ranges of the Coast Mountains, using high-resolution Google Earth imagery, documented 165 rock glaciers between lat. 50°10ʹ and 52°08ʹ N. The majority of these rock glaciers occur at sites positioned between 1,900 and 2,300 m above sea level, where rain shadow effects and continental air masses result in persistent dry, cold conditions. Morphology and field observation suggest that these features contain intact ice. The rock glaciers occupy predominately northwest- to northeast-facing slopes, with talus-derived rock glaciers largely restricted to north-facing slopes. Glacier-derived features outnumber talus-derived features by a ratio of 5:1. Several of the inventoried rock glaciers were located up valley from presumed Younger Dryas terminal moraines, indicating that they formed after 9390 BP. Dendrogeomorphological investigations at one rock glacier record contemporary activity that resulted in 1.3 cm/yr of frontal advance since AD 1674. This inventory is the first to document the presence of rock glaciers in the Coast Mountains and supports preliminary understandings of permafrost distribution in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera. Research funding was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant to Smith. We thank Øyvind Paasche and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful insights and suggestions for improvement on an earlier version of the manuscript. Special thanks are offered to Bryan Mood and Vikki St-Hilaire for their assistance in the field. Faculty Reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Charbonneau, Ansley A. Smith, Dan J. |
spellingShingle |
Charbonneau, Ansley A. Smith, Dan J. An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
author_facet |
Charbonneau, Ansley A. Smith, Dan J. |
author_sort |
Charbonneau, Ansley A. |
title |
An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
title_short |
An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
title_full |
An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
title_fullStr |
An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery |
title_sort |
inventory of rock glaciers in the central british columbia coast mountains, canada, from high resolution google earth imagery |
publisher |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12630 https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) |
geographic |
British Columbia Canada |
geographic_facet |
British Columbia Canada |
genre |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Ice permafrost |
op_relation |
Charbonneau, A. A. & Smith, D. J. (2012). An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 50(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12630 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2018.1489026 |
container_title |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
container_volume |
50 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766286986326310912 |