Doesen Rock Glacier (Carinthia, Austria):

Doesen rock glacier, Austria
Doesen rock glacier (46°59'12" N, 13°17'08" E) is located in the Ankogel group of the Hohe Tauern range, Austria. It is situated at the end of the glacially shaped, W-E oriented inner Doesen valley. Doesen rock glacier ranges from 2339 m to 2900 m ASL. The latter value is taken from Doesener Spitz, which is the highest point of the surrounding mountains in the S, SE and E of the rock glacier from where the rock glacier is nourished by weathered material, which is of crystalline type, predominantly granitic gneiss. The frontal slope of the rock glacier is approx. 35-40° steep. The length of the whole permafrost body is about 1000 m, the width varies between 150 and 300 m. In 1993 Gerhard K. Lieb from the Institute of Geography and Regional Science of the University of Graz started a research initiative on mountain permafrost in Austria with a special geographical focus on the Eastern Austrian Alps. He compiled an inventory of some 1450 rock glaciers of the area of interest by means of geomorphological mapping. For more details see Lieb (1996) and Lieb (1998).
Doesen rock glacier. Photograph taken in September 2006. The viewing direction is from Arthur-v.-Schmidhaus in an easterly direction across Doesen lake.

References (selected):


Animation of rock glacier movement: https://www.staff.tugraz.at/viktor.kaufmann/animations.html#Doesen_rock_glacier

For more information on rock glacier kinematics, please see http://www.staff.tugraz.at/viktor.kaufmann/Doesen_Rock_Glacier/

last update: january 31, 2021

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