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The Acheron rock avalanche, Canterbury, New Zealand—morphology and dynamics

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Abstract

The 1100-year-old Acheron rock avalanche deposit lies in an active tectonic setting in Canterbury, New Zealand, and has a volume of ten million cubic metres and a runout distance 3.5 km. The deposit comprises intensely fragmented greywacke rock, and the processes of intense rock fragmentation during runout are postulated to have generated an isotropic dispersive stress. Dynamic simulation shows that the runout can be explained as a flow of dry granular material with a normal coefficient of friction, if the presence of an isotropic dispersive stress within the moving rock debris throughout the runout is assumed. The dispersive stress distribution required to model the rock avalanche runout and match velocities calculated from run-up traces is closely similar to that used to simulate the runout of the much larger Falling Mountain rock avalanche in a similar lithologic and tectonic setting. Both events thus behaved in a fundamentally similar fashion.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to University of Canterbury for a Mason Trust grant to GMS to support the fieldwork. The involvement of TR Davies and MJ McSaveney was partly supported by PGSF Contract No. C05×0006 to the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

    G. M. Smith, T. R. Davies & D. H. Bell

  2. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    M. J. McSaveney

Authors
  1. G. M. Smith
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  2. T. R. Davies
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  3. M. J. McSaveney
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  4. D. H. Bell
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Correspondence to T. R. Davies.

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Smith, G.M., Davies, T.R., McSaveney, M.J. et al. The Acheron rock avalanche, Canterbury, New Zealand—morphology and dynamics. Landslides 3, 62–72 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-005-0012-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-005-0012-1

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