Permafrost in the alps. features, geographic spread, and future development

Michael Krautblatter, Andreas Kellerer-Pirklbauer, Isabelle Gartner-Roer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The distribution of permafrost in the Alps significantly affects the thermal, hydrological, mechanical and biotic behaviour of frozen rock walls, debris and nearby soils. While permafrost itself is a "hidden glaciation" inside rock and debris masses, geomorphological and dimatological features like rock glaciers, solifluction lobes, permanently ice-filled fractures in rock masses and local cold air circulation phenomena demonstrate the effects of alpine permafrost. The area covered by permafrost in the European Alps, mostly above 2,500 m approximates 6,200 km2 and is roughly 3 times larger than the area covered by Alpine Glaciers (c. 2,000 km2). Thus, water storage around permafrost occurrences becomes increasingly important as summer water supply due to rapidly shrinking glacier volumes. Coincident to the climatic warming trend since 1980s, monitoring data from alpine permafrost boreholes and geophysical monitoring provide increasing evidence of shrinking permafrost area and warming permafrost temperatures. The change in permafrost conditions causes natural hazards including increasing rock fall activity and rock slope deformation, accelerating rock glaciers and increasing debris flow activity, often affecting high-mountain infrastructure and safety. Enhanced geomorphological process understanding, monitoring methods and modelling strategies are currently being developed to better anticipate the effects of permafrost degradation in alpine geosystems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-29
Number of pages8
JournalGeographische Rundschau
Volume70
Issue number11
StatePublished - Nov 2018

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