dc.contributor |
Háskóli Íslands |
dc.contributor |
University of Iceland |
dc.contributor.author |
Morino, Costanza |
dc.contributor.author |
Conway, Susan J. |
dc.contributor.author |
Saemundsson, Thorsteinn |
dc.contributor.author |
Helgason, Jón Kristinn |
dc.contributor.author |
Hillier, John |
dc.contributor.author |
Butcher, Frances E.G. |
dc.contributor.author |
Balme, Matthew R. |
dc.contributor.author |
Jordan, Colm |
dc.contributor.author |
Argles, Tom |
dc.date.accessioned |
2020-04-03T10:34:29Z |
dc.date.available |
2020-04-03T10:34:29Z |
dc.date.issued |
2019-06-15 |
dc.identifier.citation |
Morino, C. et al., 2019. Molards as an indicator of permafrost degradation and landslide processes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 516, pp.136–147. |
dc.identifier.issn |
0012-821X |
dc.identifier.uri |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/1689 |
dc.description |
Publisher's version (útgefin grein) |
dc.description.abstract |
Molards have been defined in the past as conical mounds of debris that can form part of a landslide's deposits. We present the first conclusive evidence that molards in permafrost terrains are cones of loose debris that result from thawing of frozen blocks of ice-rich sediments mobilised by a landslide, and hence propose a rigorous definition of this landform in permafrost environments. We show that molards can be used as an indicator of permafrost degradation, and that their morphometry and spatial distribution give valuable insights into landslide dynamics in permafrost environments. We demonstrate that molards are readily recognisable not only in the field, but also in remote sensing data; surveys of historic aerial imagery allow the recognition of relict molards, which can be used as an indicator of current and past permafrost conditions. The triggering of landslides as a result of permafrost degradation will arguably occur more often as global atmospheric temperatures increase, so molards should be added to our armoury for tracking climate change, as well as helping us to understand landslide-related hazards. Finally, we have also identified candidate molards on Mars, so molards can inform about landscape evolution on Earth and other planetary bodies. |
dc.description.sponsorship |
This work has been funded by a postgraduate studentship grant
(NE/L002493/1) from the Central England Natural Environment Research Council Training Alliance (CENTA). This project forms part
of and is funded by a British Geological Survey BUFI CASE Studentship (GA/14S/024, Ref: 284). We thank the Natural Environment Research Council Airborne Research Facility (NERC ARF) and
their Data Analysis Node (NERC-ARF-DAN) plus the EUropean Facility for Airborne Research (EUFAR) for the air photography and
LiDAR data on which this paper relies. Thanks go to NERC Geophysical Equipment Facility (GEF) for the Loans 1048 and 1064
through which differential GPS surveys were possible. We thank
the GeoPlanet writing residential scheme for the support in writing this manuscript. C. Jordan publishes with permission of the
Executive Director of BGS. S. J. Conway is funded by the French
Space Agency, CNES, for her HiRISE related work. We gratefully
acknowledge the contribution of Gestur Hansson (Icelandic Meteorological Office) and of our field assistants Francesco Giuntoli, Silvia
Crosetto, and Sydney Gunnarson. The authors thank the reviewers
Anja Dufresne, Marten Geertsema and Gioachino Roberti for their
insightful comments. |
dc.format.extent |
136-147 |
dc.language.iso |
en |
dc.publisher |
Elsevier BV |
dc.relation.ispartofseries |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters;516 |
dc.rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
dc.subject |
Iceland |
dc.subject |
Mars |
dc.subject |
Landslide |
dc.subject |
Molards |
dc.subject |
Permafrost |
dc.subject |
Sífreri |
dc.subject |
Skriðuföll |
dc.subject |
Ísland |
dc.subject |
Mars (reikistjarna) |
dc.title |
Molards as an indicator of permafrost degradation and landslide processes |
dc.type |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
dcterms.license |
This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
dc.description.version |
Peer Reviewed |
dc.identifier.journal |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
dc.identifier.doi |
10.1016/j.epsl.2019.03.040 |
dc.contributor.department |
Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild (HÍ) |
dc.contributor.department |
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences (UI) |
dc.contributor.school |
Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) |
dc.contributor.school |
School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) |