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Retrogression characteristics of landslides in fine-grained permafrost soils, Mackenzie Valley, Canada

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Abstract

Thirteen landslides (retrogressive thaw flows) were investigated to study the behavior of thaw retrogression in permafrost in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. Those landslides are all in fine-grained ice-rich permafrost soils. Such landslides usually start from small-scale slope failures followed by retrogressive thaw flows when ice-rich permafrost soils are exposed to the atmosphere. The landslides were marked with survey stakes to measure their retreat rates for the thawing season of 2007. Two correlations are presented: one is between scarp wall height and retreat rate; another is between overall slope angle and retreat rate. It was found that thaw flow retrogression rate increases with increase in scarp wall height and slope angle up to a certain limit. It was also confirmed that thaw flow retrogression is not influenced by slope orientation.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that have helped improvement of this paper.

ESS Contribution number: 20080095

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Resources Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0E8, Canada

    Baolin Wang, Bhuwani Paudel & Haoqiang Li

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  1. Baolin Wang
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  2. Bhuwani Paudel
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  3. Haoqiang Li
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Correspondence to Baolin Wang.

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Wang, B., Paudel, B. & Li, H. Retrogression characteristics of landslides in fine-grained permafrost soils, Mackenzie Valley, Canada. Landslides 6, 121–127 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-009-0150-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-009-0150-y

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