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The Cerro Caquilluco–Cerrillos Negros Giant Rock Avalanches (Tacna, Peru)

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Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 2

Abstract

Giant rock avalanches have been recognized and mapped in southern Peru, to the N of Tacna. The Cerro Caquilluco rock avalanche complex has a total volume of about 15 km3 and a length of 43 km, extending from 3,900 to 530 m a.s.l.. Mapping the internal structures, the scar features and the depositional lobes allowed to suggest that the rock avalanche complex developed as a sequence of successive failures affecting tuffaceous and conglomeratic formations forming a gently dipping monoclinalic slope. Assessment of lobes volume constrained the reconstruction of the source areas for the multiple failures and the successive rock avalanche simulations. Seismic triggering is suggested, whereas H/L vs volume relationships suggest a high mobility comparable to that of extremely mobile volcanic rock avalanches.

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Correspondence to Giovanni B. Crosta .

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Crosta, G.B., Paolo, F., Elena, V., Hermanns, R.L. (2015). The Cerro Caquilluco–Cerrillos Negros Giant Rock Avalanches (Tacna, Peru). In: Lollino, G., et al. Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09057-3_159

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