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Rockslide Dams in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway

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Landslide Science and Practice

Abstract

Eleven rockslide dams exist in Møre og Romsdal county in Norway. Geological evidences indicate that more of such dams existed during the Holocene. Eight of those dams formed in prehistoric times, while two rockslide dams formed in historical time. One of the rockslide dams failed partially at the beginning of the Holocene eroding 45,000 m3 from the dam, however the remaining dam is stable and it is used for hydropower generation. Present hazard of rockslide dams is represented by the Mannen unstable rockslope. This site has a volume of 15–25 × 106 m3 and is moving up to >4.5 cm/year on measurement points. A failure of the slope would dam the Rauma valley and few farms would be flooded upriver. However, due to the large discharge of the river the dam would only prevail a short time and dam failure is likely to cause inundation downstream. Here we present a probability analysis for this scenario.

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Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge the financial support of this mapping program by the Norwegian Water and Energy Directorate (NVE) and namely Graziella Devoli and Olianne Eikenæs for fruitful discussions throughout the years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Landslide Department, Geological Survey of Norway, Leiv Eirikssons vei 39, Trondheim, Norway

    Reginald L. Hermanns, Halgeir Dahle, Aline Saintot & Oddvar Longva

  2. Landslide Department, Norges Vassdrags Og Energi Direktorat, Trondheim, Norway

    Per L. Bjerke

  3. Dipartamento Di Scienze Geologiche E Geotecnologie, UMB, Milan, Italy

    Giovanni B. Crosta

  4. The County of Møre og Romsdal, Molde, Norway

    Einar Anda

  5. Åknes Tafjord Beredskapsenteret, Stranda, Norway

    Lars H. Blikra

Authors
  1. Reginald L. Hermanns
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  2. Halgeir Dahle
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  3. Per L. Bjerke
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  4. Giovanni B. Crosta
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  5. Einar Anda
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  6. Lars H. Blikra
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  7. Aline Saintot
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  8. Oddvar Longva
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reginald L. Hermanns .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Italy, ISPRA - Italian Institute for Environmen, Rome, Italy

    Claudio Margottini

  2. ICL - International Consortium on Landsl, Florence, Italy

    Paolo Canuti

  3. Kyoto University Uji-Campus, Uji, Kyoto, Japan

    Kyoji Sassa

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Hermanns, R.L. et al. (2013). Rockslide Dams in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. In: Margottini, C., Canuti, P., Sassa, K. (eds) Landslide Science and Practice. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31319-6_1

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