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The effects of climate change have the potential to impact slope stability. Negative impacts are expected to be greatest at high northerly latitudes where degradation of permafrost in rock and soil, debuttressing of slopes as a result of glacial retreat, and changes in ocean ice-cover are likely to increase the susceptibility of slopes to landslides. In the United States, the greatest increases in air temperature and precipitation are expected to occur in Alaska. In order to assess the impact that these environmental changes will have on landslide size (magnitude), mobility, and frequency, inventories of historical landslides are needed. These inventories provide baseline data that can be used to identify changes...
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In this report, we evaluate potential tsunami hazards for southeastern Alaska communities of Elfin Cove, Gustavus, and Hoonah and numerically model the extent of inundation from tsunami waves generated by tectonic and landslide sources. We perform numerical modeling of historic tsunami events, such as the tsunami triggered by the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, and the tsunami waves generated by the recent 2011 Tohoku and 2012 Haida Gwaii earthquakes. Hypothetical tsunami scenarios include variations of the extended 1964 rupture, megathrust earthquakes in the Prince William Sound and Alaska Peninsula regions, and a Cascadia megathrust earthquake. Local underwater landslide events in Taylor Bay and Port Frederick,...
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On May 25, 2014, a rain-on-snow induced rock avalanche occurred in the West Salt Creek Valley on the northern flank of Grand Mesa in western Colorado. The avalanche traveled 4.6 km down the confined valley, killing 3 people. The avalanche was rare for the contiguous U.S. because of its large size (54.5 Mm3) and long travel distance. To understand the avalanche failure sequence, mechanisms, and mobility, we mapped landslide structures, geology, and ponds at 1:1000-scale. We used high-resolution, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) imagery from July 2014 as a base for our field mapping. Here we present the map data and UAS imagery. The data accompany an interpretive paper published in the journal Geosphere. The full citation...
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Steep glacial and paraglacial landscapes often exhibit evidence of gravitationally-driven slope deformation. In recently deglaciated coastal environments, catastrophic failures of these bedrock instabilities as rapid landslides have the potential to generate tsunamis that may pose hazards for communities, infrastructure, mariners, and important natural and cultural resources. We present a first inventory of manually mapped bedrock instabilities in western Prince William Sound and nearby locations in the Chugach Mountains. Slope instabilities included in this inventory are defined as large areas (> 0.01 km2) that exhibit evidence of slope deformation, including scarps, tension cracks, and signs of recent smaller-scale...
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The use of high-resolution remotely sensed imagery can be an effective way to obtain quantitative measurements of rock-avalanche volumes and geometries in remote glaciated areas, both of which are important for an improved understanding of rock-avalanche characteristics and processes. We utilized the availability of high-resolution (~0.5 m) WorldView satellite stereo imagery to derive digital elevation data in a 100 km2 area around the 28 June 2016 Lamplugh rock avalanche in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. We used NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline, an open-source software package available from NASA, to produce one pre- and four post-event digital elevation models (DEMs) of the area surrounding the Lamplugh...
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Mass-wasting events that displace water, whether they initiate from underwater sources (submarine landslides) or subaerial sources (subaerial-to-submarine landslides), have the potential to cause tsunami waves that can pose a significant threat to human life and infrastructure in coastal areas (for example towns, cruise ships, bridges, oil platforms, and communication lines). Sheltered inlets and narrow bays can be locations of especially high risk as they often have higher human populations, and the effects of water displacement from moving sediment can be amplified as compared to the effects from similarly sized mass movements in open water. In landscapes undergoing deglaciation, such as the fjords and mountain...
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The purpose of this study is to evaluate potential tsunami hazards for the community of Whittier and western Passage Canal area. We numerically model the extent of inundation due to tsunami waves generated from earthquake and landslide sources. Tsunami scenarios include a repeat of the tsunami triggered by the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, as well as tsunami waves generated by a hypothetically extended 1964 rupture, a hypothetical Cascadia megathrust earthquake, hypothetical earthquakes in Prince William Sound, and Kodiak asperities of the 1964 rupture. Local underwater landslide and rockslide events in Passage Canal are also considered as credible tsunamigenic scenarios. Results of numerical modeling combined with...
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Glacial retreat and mountain-permafrost degradation resulting from rising global temperatures have the potential to impact the frequency and magnitude of landslides in glaciated environments. In the Saint Elias Mountains of southeast Alaska, the presence of weak sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and active uplift resulting from the collision of the Yakutat and North American tectonic plates create landslide-prone conditions (Winkler et al., 2000). We used Landsat imagery to create an inventory of large (>0.1 square km) rock avalanches that occurred along the south flank of the Saint Elias Mountains between 1984 and 2019 as a baseline for present and future changes in landslide magnitude and frequency. This data...
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Two active landslides at and near the retreating front of Barry Glacier at the head of Barry Arm Fjord in southern Alaska (Figure 1) could generate tsunamis if they failed rapidly and entered the water of the fjord. Landslide A, at the front of the glacier, is the largest, with a total volume estimated at 455 M m3 (Dai et al, 2020). Historical photographs from Barry Arm indicate that Landslide A initiated in the mid twentieth century, but there was a large pulse of movement between 2010 and 2017 when Barry Glacier thinned and retreated from about 1/2 of the toe of Landslide A (Dai et al., 2020). The glacier has continued to retreat since 2017. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) investigations of the...


    map background search result map search result map Map data and Unmanned Aircraft System imagery from the May 25, 2014 West Salt Creek rock avalanche in western Colorado Inventory of rock avalanches in western Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1984-2016: a baseline data set for evaluating the impact of climate change on avalanche magnitude, mobility, and frequency Pre- and post-event digital elevation models generated from high-resolution stereo satellite imagery of the 2016 Lamplugh rock avalanche in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska Tsunami inundation maps of Whittier and western Passage Canal, Alaska Tsunami inundation maps of Elfin Cove, Gustavus, and Hoonah, Alaska Inventory map of submarine and subaerial-to-submarine landslides in Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska Inventory data of rock avalanches in the Saint Elias Mountains of southeast Alaska, derived from Landsat imagery (1984-2019) Map of landslide structures and kinematic elements at Barry Arm, Alaska in the summer of 2020 Inventory of Large Slope Instabilities, Prince William Sound, Alaska Tsunami inundation maps of Whittier and western Passage Canal, Alaska Map data and Unmanned Aircraft System imagery from the May 25, 2014 West Salt Creek rock avalanche in western Colorado Map of landslide structures and kinematic elements at Barry Arm, Alaska in the summer of 2020 Tsunami inundation maps of Elfin Cove, Gustavus, and Hoonah, Alaska Inventory data of rock avalanches in the Saint Elias Mountains of southeast Alaska, derived from Landsat imagery (1984-2019) Inventory map of submarine and subaerial-to-submarine landslides in Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska Inventory of rock avalanches in western Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1984-2016: a baseline data set for evaluating the impact of climate change on avalanche magnitude, mobility, and frequency Inventory of Large Slope Instabilities, Prince William Sound, Alaska