Permafrost creep within a recently deglaciated glacier forefield: Muragl, Swiss Alps

Photogrammetric measurements of surface movement, 1981–94, on the Muragl glacier forefield (Swiss Alps) are compared to direct current resistivity surveys for the same area. At three locations isolated patches of frozen sediments were inferred, each about 10,000–20,000 m2 in area. These were deforming at surface velocities of up to 50 cm per year. The locations where creep was observed coincide well with areas where two-dimensional (2D) resistivity surveys suggest ice is present within the ground. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  S. Springman,et al.  Temperature conditions in two Alpine rock glaciers , 2002 .

[2]  A. Kb,et al.  Surface Geometry, Thickness Changes and Flow Fields on Creeping Mountain Permafrost: Automatic Extraction by Digital Image Analysis , 2000 .

[3]  N. Morgenstern,et al.  In situ creep properties in ice-rich permafrost soil , 1986 .

[4]  W. T. Pfeffer,et al.  Rock glacier dynamics and paleoclimatic implications , 1999 .

[5]  M. Dusseault,et al.  EXPERIMENTS ON SURFACE DEFORMATION ARISING FROM A SUBSURFACE FRACTURE , 1995 .

[6]  K. Echelmeyer,et al.  The flow of Fireweed rock glacier, Alaska, U.S.A. , 2004, Journal of Glaciology.

[7]  Lukas U. Arenson,et al.  Borehole deformation measurements and internal structure of some rock glaciers in Switzerland , 2002 .

[8]  W. Haeberli Holocene Push-Moraines in Alpine Permafrost , 1979 .

[9]  A. Kääb,et al.  Towards a palaeoclimatic model of rock-glacier formation in the Swiss Alps , 2000, Annals of Glaciology.

[10]  K. Isaksen,et al.  Composition, flow and development of two tongue‐shaped rock glaciers in the permafrost of Svalbard , 2000 .

[11]  H. French,et al.  In situ creep of frozen soil, Fenghuo Shan, Tibet Plateau, China , 1995 .

[12]  C. Kneisel OCCURRENCE OF SURFACE ICE AND GROUND ICE/PERMAFROST IN RECENTLY DEGLACIATED GLACIER FOREFIELDS, ST. MORITZ AREA, EASTERN SWISS ALPS , 1998 .

[13]  Andreas Kääb,et al.  Advance mechanisms of rock glaciers , 2005 .

[14]  C. Hauck Frozen ground monitoring using DC resistivity tomography , 2002 .

[15]  Li Wenjin,et al.  Effectiveness of the High-Precision Gravity Method in Detecting Sinkholes in Taian Railway Station of Shandong Province , 1990 .

[16]  D. Barsch Rockglaciers: Indicators for the Present and Former Geoecology in High Mountain Environments , 1996 .

[17]  Ketil Isaksen,et al.  Terrain analyses and surface velocity measurements of the Hiorthfjellet rock glacier, Svalbard , 2003 .

[18]  A. Kääb Monitoring high-mountain terrain deformation from repeated air- and spaceborne optical data: examples using digital aerial imagery and ASTER data , 2002 .

[19]  Christophe Lambiel,et al.  Contribution of real‐time kinematic GPS in the study of creeping mountain permafrost: examples from the Western Swiss Alps , 2004 .

[20]  C. Kneisel New insights into mountain permafrost occurrence and characteristics in glacier forefields at high altitude through the application of 2D resistivity imaging , 2004 .

[21]  C. Kneisel Permafrost in recently deglaciated glacier forefields - measurements and observations in the eastern Swiss Alps and northern Sweden (with 7 figures and 4 tables) , 2003 .

[22]  Atsushi Ikeda,et al.  A rapidly moving small rock glacier at the lower limit of the mountain permafrost belt in the Swiss Alps , 2002 .

[23]  Richard S. Williams Book review: Remote sensing of mountain glaciers and permafrost creep , 2007, Journal of Glaciology.

[24]  C. Lambiel,et al.  Glacier/permafrost relationships in forefields of small glaciers (Swiss Alps). , 2003 .

[25]  S. Dallimore,et al.  Deep‐seated creep of massive ground ice, Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Canada , 1996 .

[26]  M. Hoelzle,et al.  Ten years after the drilling through the permafrost of the active rock glacier Murtel, eastern Swiss Alps : Answered questions and new perspectives , 1998 .

[27]  H. French,et al.  Solifluction and the Role of Permafrost Creep, Eastern Melville Island, N.W.T., Canada , 1991 .

[28]  K. Echelmeyer,et al.  The thickness and internal structure of Fireweed rock glacier, Alaska, U.S.A., as determined by geophysical methods , 2004, Journal of Glaciology.

[29]  R. Baumhauer,et al.  Comparison of spatial modelling and field evidence of glacier/permafrost relations in an Alpine permafrost environment , 2000, Annals of Glaciology.

[30]  C. Lambiel,et al.  Permafrost and Little Ice Age glacier relationships, Posets Massif, Central Pyrenees, Spain , 2004 .

[31]  Andreas Kääb,et al.  Geometry and dynamics of two lobe-shaped rock glaciers in the permafrost of Svalbard , 2002 .

[32]  A. Kääb,et al.  Lateglacial and Holocene evolution of glaciers and permafrost in the Val Muragl , Upper Engadin , Swiss Alps , 2002 .

[33]  L. Arenson,et al.  Unstable alpine permafrost , 2003 .

[34]  M. Hoelzle,et al.  SURFACE MOVEMENT AND INTERNAL DEFORMATION OF ICE-ROCK MIXTURES WITHIN ROCK GLACIERS AT PONTRESINA-SCHAFBERG, UPPER ENGADIN, SWITZERLAND , 1998 .

[35]  O. Humlum The climatic significance of rock glaciers , 1998 .

[36]  D. Clark,et al.  Galena Creek rock glacier revisited—new observations on an old controversy , 1998 .

[37]  J. L. Sollid,et al.  Rock glaciers on Prins Karls Forland, Svalbard. I: internal structure, flow velocity and morphology , 1998 .