CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Evans, S.G.; Clague, J.J.; Woodsworth, G.J.; and Hungr, O.
Date : 1989
Title : The Pandemonium Creek rock avalanche, British Columbia
Publication : Canadian Geotechnical Journal
Issue : 26(3):
Page(s) : 427-446.
Abstract
In 1959, a rock spur became detached from the headwall of a cirque near Pandemonium Creek in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Approximately 5 X 10 (super 6) m (super 3) of blocky, gneissic quartz diorite debris travelled 9.0 km along a highly irregular path, descending a vertical distance of 2 km to the valley of South Atnarko River. This mobility is due, in part, to (1) peculiarities in the path of the landslide (lateral moraines, for example, funnelled and accelerated the debris) and (2) travel over a glacier below the detachment zone. Although most of the debris came to rest on the upper part of a fan at the mouth of Pandemonium Creek, one lobe traversed the fan and entered Knot Lakes, where it generated displacement waves that destroyed trees along the shore. The analysis suggests that the rock avalanche had two phases; a very rapid initial phase from detachment to the beginning of the run-up, and, following sudden energy losses at the run-up, a second phase involving much lower velocities.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology