Climatic Zonality of Periglacial Landforms in Mountain Areas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic1288Keywords:
Climatology, Creep, Mountains, Periglacial landforms, Plants (Biology), Rock glaciers, Alaska Range, Brooks Range, Alaska, China, Dempster Highway region, N.W.T./Yukon, Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Top of the World Highway region, YukonAbstract
The alpine periglacial areas of the world can be divided into three distinctive landscape types dominated by one of the following: active rock glaciers, active block streams, or gelifluction landforms. These also correspond to distinct climates, the active rock glaciers occurring under cold, humid conditions; the active block streams in cold, dry climates; and gelifluction-dominated landforms occurring in warmer areas. These have distinct ranges of mean annual temperature and precipitation, which can be used in interpreting climatic changes based on distribution of fossil landforms.
Key words: alpine permafrost, block streams, rock glaciers, gelifluction
