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Surface exposure dating and geophysical prospecting of the Holocene Lauvitel rock slide (French Alps)

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Abstract

Large rock falls and rockslides represent a risk for human communities in mountainous areas as they can cause fatalities and destruction of settlements and infrastructures. Assessing the associated hazard requires constraining the time frequency of such events. Since large rockslides are not common, estimating their frequency requires recording them over a long period of time. The Holocene period then appears as pertinent, which implies that rockslide features have to be dated with absolute chronology methods. This paper presents a characterisation and dating of the Lauvitel rockslide, one of the largest Holocene rockslides in the French Alps. Combining field observation with electrical tomography profiles performed on the rockslide deposit that constitutes the Lauvitel Lake dam allows estimating its volume at a minimum of 12 × 106 m3. In addition, cosmic ray exposure dating using in situ-produced 10Be concentration measurements has been applied to date seven samples collected both on the main sliding surface and on blocks lying on the dam and further downstream. Ages obtained are consistent with a single large rockslide event, which occurred at 4.7 ± 0.4 10Be-ka and formed two distinct deposits. However, from a mechanical point of view, these clearly separated deposits could hardly result from a single movement. A comparison of their reach angles with those reviewed in the literature highlights that the lower deposit must result from rock avalanches larger than 107 m3, while the upper one (the Lauvitel dam) must result from several events smaller than 106 m3. In the context of hazard assessment for land use planning, these events can, however, be considered as a unique event.

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Acknowledgements

This study is part of RD’s Msc project at Université Paul Cézanne and Université Joseph Fourier in the framework of the ANCEMT project funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (project N° 06-BLAN-0207). We thank the Parc National des Ecrins, X. Bodin, D. Fiat and O. Leroux for invaluable field assistance. We acknowledge S. Merkel and G. Aumaitre for technical assistance during 10Be samples preparation and measurements, and P. van der Beek for improving the style of the manuscript. S. Garambois and A. Revil are also acknowledged for fruitful discussions on the interpretation of electrical prospecting results and D. Dumas for providing lake-level information. The geophysical survey was a low-carbon-footprint operation, with material transported by donkeys. A constructive review by an anonymous reviewer improved the manuscript.

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  1. Romain Delunel

    Present address: Laboratoire de Géodynamique des Chaînes Alpines, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), UMR 6635 CNRS–Aix Marseille Université, BP 80, 13545, Aix en Provence, France

    Romain Delunel, Régis Braucher & Didier L. Bourlès

  2. Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et de Tectonophysique, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble, France

    Didier Hantz

  3. Institut de Géographie Alpine—UMR 5194-PACTE/Territoires, Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

    Philippe Schoeneich

  4. BRGM, 3 avenue Claude-Guillemin, 45060, Orléans Cedex 2, France

    Jacques Deparis

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  1. Romain Delunel
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  2. Didier Hantz
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Correspondence to Romain Delunel.

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Delunel, R., Hantz, D., Braucher, R. et al. Surface exposure dating and geophysical prospecting of the Holocene Lauvitel rock slide (French Alps). Landslides 7, 393–400 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-010-0221-0

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