CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Gardner, J.S.
Date : 1979
Title : The movement of material on debris slopes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Publication : Zeitschrfit fur Geomorphologie
Issue : 23:
Page(s) : 45-57.
Abstract
Rates and patterns or surficial material movement on alpine slopes are described. The data came from eleven years of observing four slopes in the Valley of the Ten Peaks area and two years of observing three slopes in the Highwood Pass area. Both areas are located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The study method involved monitoring the changing position of individual rocks marked with oil paints and initially arranged in straight lines or transects across the slopes. Over eleven years, seven measurements were made. Rates of movement were great on a year-to-year basis. A maximum single movement of 70 m for one rock was recorded. Mean annual movement in the Valley of the Ten Peaks area ranged from 13 to 88 cms per year, while that in the Highwood Pass area ranged from 0 to 13 cms per year. Variability in movements between particles, transects and slopes was great. In eleven years, almost all the monitored rocks displayed some movement. A decline in marker recovery through the observation period indicates that burial and mixing of the surficial material was a characteristic of the movement. Rates and patterns of movement plus field observations of geomorphic events suggest that movements of on-slope material was stimulated by rockfalls, snow avalanches, debris flows, fluvial action, and internal failure due to the addition of material up slope.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology