Rockglacier Movement, Velocity, and Rheology

The movement of rockglaciers has caused quite a lot of speculation. Theoretically, a huge mass of debris can be moved by a number of different processes (Johnson 1987). A discussion of these various theoretical possibilities has to be based on information of measured velocities and on the geometry of the rockglacier movement. This is possible today, because measurements have been carried out for more than 70 years on different rockglaciers around the world. Even if the methods used are extremely different, quite a good picture of the geometry of the surface movement of rockglaciers has been developed.