TY  - JOUR
A1  - Panek, Tomas
A1  - Korup, Oliver
A1  - Lenart, Jan
A1  - Hradecky, Jan
A1  - Brezny, Michal
T1  - Giant landslides in the foreland of the Patagonian Ice Sheet
T2  - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal
N2  - Quaternary glaciations have repeatedly shaped large tracts of the Andean foreland. Its spectacular large glacial lakes, staircases of moraine ridges, and extensive outwash plains have inspired generations of scientists to reconstruct the processes, magnitude, and timing of ice build-up and decay at the mountain front. Surprisingly few of these studies noticed many dozens of giant (≥108 m3) mass-wasting deposits in the foreland. We report some of the world's largest terrestrial landslides in the eastern piedmont of the Patagonian Ice Sheet (PIS) along the traces of the former Lago Buenos Aires and Lago Puyerredón glacier lobes and lakes. More than 283 large rotational slides and lateral spreads followed by debris slides, earthflows, rotational and translational rockslides, complex slides and few large rock avalanches detached some 164 ± 56 km3 of material from the slopes of volcanic mesetas, lake-bounding moraines, and river-gorge walls. Many of these landslide deposits intersect with well-dated moraine ridges or former glacial-lake shorelines, and offer opportunities for relative dating of slope failure. We estimate that >60% of the landslide volume (∼96 km3) detached after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Giant slope failures cross-cutting shorelines of a large Late Glacial to Early Holocene lake (“glacial lake PIS”) likely occurred during successive lake-level drop between ∼11.5 and 8 ka, and some of them are the largest hitherto documented landslides in moraines. We conclude that 1) large portions of terminal moraines can fail catastrophically several thousand years after emplacement; 2) slopes formed by weak bedrock or unconsolidated glacial deposits bordering glacial lakes can release extremely large landslides; and 3) landslides still occur in the piedmont, particularly along postglacial gorges cut in response to falling lake levels.
KW  - Quaternary
KW  - Landslide
KW  - Geomorphology
KW  - Relative dating
KW  - Glacier foreland
KW  - Glacial lake
KW  - Patagonian Ice Sheet
KW  - Paleogeography
KW  - South America
Y1  - 2018
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/52253
SN  - 0277-3791
VL  - 194
SP  - 39
EP  - 54
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -