Permafrost thaw and destabilization of Alpine rock walls in the hot summer of 2003
- 13 July 2004
- journal article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 31 (13)
Abstract
Exceptional rockfall occurred throughout the Alps during the unusually hot summer of 2003. It is likely related to the fast thermal reaction of the subsurface of steep rock slopes and a corresponding destabilization of ice‐filled discontinuities. This suggests that rockfall may be a direct and unexpectedly fast impact of climate change. Based upon our measurements in Alpine rock faces, we present model simulations illustrating the distribution and degradation of permafrost where the summer of 2003 has resulted in extreme thaw. We argue that hotter summers predicted by climate models for the coming decades will result in reduced stability of many alpine rock walls.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Warming permafrost in European mountainsGlobal and Planetary Change, 2003
- Constraints on radiative forcing and future climate change from observations and climate model ensemblesNature, 2002
- Regional temperature variability in the European Alps: 1760–1998 from homogenized instrumental time seriesInternational Journal of Climatology, 2001
- The effect of rise in mean annual temperature on the stability of rock slopes containing ice‐filled discontinuitiesPermafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2001
- Transient thermal effects below complex topographiesTectonophysics, 1999
- Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitationsGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- Thermal regimes beneath coarse blocky materialsPermafrost and Periglacial Processes, 1998
- CLIMATIC CHANGE AT HIGH ELEVATION SITES: AN OVERVIEWClimatic Change, 1997
- TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS DURING THE LAST CENTURY AT HIGH ELEVATION SITESClimatic Change, 1997
- Climatic warming and the degradation of warm permafrostPermafrost and Periglacial Processes, 1996