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Late Holocene Sturzstroms in Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A.

Hazardous Mass Movements Along the Eastern Front of the Lewis Overthrust Fault

  • Chapter
Geomorphological Hazards in High Mountain Areas

Part of the book series: The GeoJournal Library ((GEJL,volume 46))

Abstract

Recent decades have seen population expansion into, and pressure upon, marginal mountain lands. The inevitable disasters associated with such expansion have in many cases forced attention onto the distribution of, and processes associated with, rock avalanches (sturzstroms). Increased attention on rock avalanches has also resulted from the United Nations’ declaration of the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. In North America, particularly notable efforts directed at identifying and reducing rock-avalanche hazards have taken place in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories (Eisbacher, 1978, 1979; Cruden, 1982, 1985; Eisbacher and Clague, 1984; Cruden and Hungr, 1986; Evans, 1987, 1989a, 1989b; Evans et al., 1987, 1989; Clague and Evans, 1987; Van Gassen and Cruden, 1989; Jackson and Isobe, 1990; Ryder et al., 1990; Evans and Clague, 1990, 1994; Kaiser and Simmons, 1990; Hungr, 1995). In the U.S.A., the bulk of rock-avalanche-hazard research has been focused on the tectonically active states of Alaska and California (Griggs, 1920; Shreve, 1966, 1968a, 1968b; Eppler et al., 1987). Work in the Rocky Mountain states has also been undertaken (Voight, 1978), but few studies have focused on the distribution and age of rock-avalanche deposits in Montana, a state where the western third is seismically active and mountainous. Exceptions include works by (1964), who described the rockslide avalanche produced by the Madison Canyon earthquake of 1959, near Yellowstone National Park; (1965), who described rockfall-avalanche and rockslide-avalanche deposits of Pleistocene and Holocene age at Sawtooth Ridge, Montana, approximately 100 km southeast of Glacier National Park; and previous papers describing site characteristics and ages associated with two sturzstrom sites in Glacier National Park (Butler, 1983; Butler et al., 1986, 1991; Butler and Schipke, 1992; Butler and Malanson, 1993).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666-4616, USA

    David R. Butler

  2. Department of Geography, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242, USA

    George P. Malanson

  3. Department of Geography, University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599-3220, USA

    Forrest D. Wilkerson

  4. Department of Geography, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina, 27707, USA

    Ginger L. Schmid

Authors
  1. David R. Butler
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  2. George P. Malanson
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  3. Forrest D. Wilkerson
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  4. Ginger L. Schmid
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Kalvoda

  2. Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

    Charles L. Rosenfeld

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Butler, D.R., Malanson, G.P., Wilkerson, F.D., Schmid, G.L. (1998). Late Holocene Sturzstroms in Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A.. In: Kalvoda, J., Rosenfeld, C.L. (eds) Geomorphological Hazards in High Mountain Areas. The GeoJournal Library, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5228-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5228-0_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6200-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5228-0

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