Ice-buttressing-controlled rock slope failure  on a cirque headwall, Lake District, UK

Carling, Paul A.; Jansen, John D.; Su, Teng; Andersen, Jane Lund; Knudsen, Mads Faurschou

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-817-2023

Articles | Volume 11, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-817-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-817-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 4

Research article

|

17 Aug 2023

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2023

Ice-buttressing-controlled rock slope failure on a cirque headwall, Lake District, UK

Paul A. Carling, John D. Jansen, Teng Su, Jane Lund Andersen, and Mads Faurschou Knudsen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-817-2023-supplement

Data sets

CosmoAarhus/LakeDistrict_CosmoData: LakeDistrict_CosmoData (v1.0.0) Cosmogenic nuclide data https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8245908

Short summary

Many steep glaciated rock walls collapsed when the Ice Age ended. How ice supports a steep rock wall until the ice decays is poorly understood. A collapsed rock wall was surveyed in the field and numerically modelled. Cosmogenic exposure dates show it collapsed and became ice-free ca. 18 ka ago. The model showed that the rock wall failed very slowly because ice was buttressing the slope. Dating other collapsed rock walls can improve understanding of how and when the last Ice Age ended.