Identification of rock and fracture kinematics in high alpine rockwalls under the influence of elevation

Draebing, Daniel

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-977-2021

Articles | Volume 9, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-977-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-977-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 4

Research article

|

17 Aug 2021

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2021

Identification of rock and fracture kinematics in high alpine rockwalls under the influence of elevation

Daniel Draebing

Download

Final revised paper (published on 17 Aug 2021)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 22 Sep 2020)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC1: 'Referee Comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 19 Oct 2020
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Daniel Draebing, 23 Mar 2021
RC2: 'review Identification of rock and fracture kinematics in high Alpine rockwalls under the influence of altitude', Anonymous Referee #2, 21 Jan 2021
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Daniel Draebing, 23 Mar 2021

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Daniel Draebing on behalf of the Authors (23 Mar 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (24 Jun 2021) by Tom Coulthard

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (04 Jul 2021)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Daniel Draebing presents the results of a series of lab- and field-based experiments to quantify thermal and ice-induced rock and fracture kinematics across a number of rock walls in Alpine Switzerland. The original two reviewers recommended revision, with Reviewer 1 in particular providing a very constructive set of suggestions. Having read the revised manuscript in detail I am satisfied that the author has addressed all major and minor concerns, and that where they have chosen to rebut a reviewer's suggested change, their defence is sound. The revised manuscript is much shorter than the original (as evidenced in the tracked-changes version, and notably in the Results section) and this has improved its clarity and impact. The key findings of the work are undoubtedly significant beyond the study site, and the hypothesis that an earlier-onset snowmelt (induced by climate change) will alter the frequency, magnitude and location of thermal and ice-induced stresses, etc, is a notable contribution to the wider field.

I recommend the manuscript's acceptance pending one minor revision, and a series of technical corrections.

Minor revision - the Abstract states that 'Future work should quantify rockfall patterns and link these patterns to climatic drivers'. However, this recommendation is not reiterated in the Conclusion, and, as far as I can see, it is not stated clearly or developed in more detail in the Discussion. As written in the Abstract this suggestion seems like an afterthought, and I'd like to see more development/detail included in the Discussion to this effect.

Technical corrections:

L9 – ‘fractured’ should be ‘fracture’

L18 – correct to ‘on daily time scales’

L19 – correct to ‘On a seasonal scale…’

L20 – correct to ‘…ice segregation-induced fracture opening…’

L21 – change ‘irreversible’ to ‘irreversibly’

L23 – change to ‘on an annual scale’

L22 – correct to ‘..and increase temperature extremes and will, therefore, affect the number…’

L25 - I think ‘Alpine’ should be ‘alpine’. Your study is ‘Alpine’-focused, but the implications of your findings go beyond the Alps, therefore suggest you use lowercase ‘alpine’, as per line 9. Also, L30 – I think this should be ‘alpine’ too. Check remainder of manuscript – there are numerous instances of use that need checking.

The order of in-text citations needs checking and correcting throughout so that where more than one citation occurs, these are ordered by date (earliest first). There’s no logic to your system at present.

L52 – correct to ‘expansion-induced’

L84 – ‘air-dried’

L234 – ‘break down’. Also L370.

L290 – correct to ‘On an annual time scale’

L333 – correct to ‘…are not acting in isolation and other…’

L335 – correct to ‘…As soon as cracks exist, daily…’

L338 – correct to ‘…changes in snow duration…’

L375 – change to ‘…suggests that ice segregation caused slow fracture opening, which was reversed by ice relaxation.’

(note - there are more typos and minor grammatical errors than I've listed here, but I'll defer to the copy-editing team to pick these up and correct them in due course)

Hide

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (05 Jul 2021) by Tom Coulthard

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (05 Jul 2021) by Tom Coulthard (Editor)

AR by Daniel Draebing on behalf of the Authors (07 Jul 2021) Author's response Manuscript

Post-review adjustments

AA: Author's adjustment | EA: Editor approval

AA by Daniel Draebing on behalf of the Authors (05 Aug 2021) Author's adjustment Manuscript

EA: Adjustments approved (16 Aug 2021) by Tom Coulthard

Short summary

Alpine rockwalls are affected by weathering processes that result in rock and fracture deformation. This deformation decreases rockwall stability with time. I installed crackmeters along a topographic gradient to identify the spatial and temporal variation of weathering processes. My data show that elevation-dependent snow cover, topographic factors and fracture dipping control the frequency and magnitude of weathering processes and resulting rock kinematics.