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Reconstruction of the history of the Palliser Rockslide based on 36Cl terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating and debris volume estimations

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a combined study, using cosmogenic 36Cl exposure dating and terrestrial digital photogrammetry of the Palliser Rockslide located in the southeastern Canadian Rocky Mountains. This site is particularly well-suited to demonstrate how this multi-disciplinary approach can be used to differentiate distinct rocksliding events, estimate their volume, and establish their chronology and recurrence interval. Observations suggest that rocksliding has been ongoing since the late Pleistocene deglaciation. Two major rockslide events have been dated at 10.0 ± 1.2 kyr and 7.7 ± 0.8 kyr before present, with failure volumes of 40 and 8 Mm3, respectively. The results have important implications concerning our understanding of the temporal distribution of paraglacial rockslides and rock avalanches; they provide a better understanding of the volumes and failure mechanisms of recurrent failure events; and they represent the first absolute ages of a prehistoric high-magnitude event in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for the research was provided by the Alberta Geological Survey. The authors thank Véronique Duc, Sylvian Braibant, Roger Studerus, and Song Yan-Hui for their assistance in the field; Guang Yang at DGC and Marc Caffee at PRIME Lab for target preparation and AMS analysis; and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd., Edmonton, Canada

    Matthieu Sturzenegger

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Doug Stead & Brent Ward

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

    John Gosse

  4. Alberta Geological Survey/Energy Resources Conservation Board, Edmonton, Canada

    Corey Froese

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  1. Matthieu Sturzenegger
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  2. Doug Stead
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Correspondence to Matthieu Sturzenegger.

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Sturzenegger, M., Stead, D., Gosse, J. et al. Reconstruction of the history of the Palliser Rockslide based on 36Cl terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating and debris volume estimations. Landslides 12, 1097–1106 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-014-0527-4

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