| Title | Debris flow chronology and potential hazard along the Alaska Highway in southwest Yukon Territory |
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| Author | Koch, J; Clague, J J; Blais-Stevens, A |
| Source | Environmental & Engineering Geoscience vol. 20, no. 1, 2014 p. 25-43, https://doi.org/10.2113/gseegeosci.20.1.25 |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2014 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20130424 |
| Publisher | GeoScienceWorld |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Yukon |
| NTS | 115B/16; 115G/01; 115G/02; 115G/06; 115G/07; 115G/08; 115G/10; 115G/11; 115G/12; 115G/13; 115G/14 |
| Area | Alaska Highway; Kluane Lake; Kluane River; Beaver Creek |
| Lat/Long WENS | -140.0000 -138.0000 62.0000 60.7500 |
| Subjects | surficial geology/geomorphology; engineering geology; geochronology; debris flow deposits; debris flows; health hazards; dendrochronology; tephrochronology; slope deposits; slope failures; slope
stability; slope stability analyses |
| Illustrations | location maps; photographs; histograms |
| Program | Environmental Geoscience environmental impacts and adaptation in the northern environment |
| Released | 2014 01 28 |
| Abstract | We studied 30 large debris fans along the Alaska Highway between the Alaska-Yukon boundary near Beaver Creek and the south end of Kluane Lake to document late Holocene and historic debris flow activity
and to evaluate the hazard that debris flows pose to the highway and other infrastructure. We used dendrochronology and tephrochronology to date surfaces on the fans and to estimate debris flow recurrence. All of the fans are paraglacial landforms of
largely latest Pleistocene and early Holocene age. Debris flows continued to occur, probably at a diminishing rate, during the middle and late Holocene, but have only left an irregular carapace of deposits on the early Holocene fans. The White River
tephra, which is about 1,200 years old, occurs across the surface of most of the fans, indicating that few debris flows and floods have escaped existing channels of streams on the fans. We conclude that future debris flows, like those that have
occurred on nine fans in the past few decades, will mostly be restricted to present stream crossings. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
This is a scientific paper assessing the Debris flow hazard potential along the Alaska Highway Corridor, which includes a proposed pipeline. It was
funded by PERD as a research activity within the "Permafrost and landscape susceptibility, Alaska Highway Pipeline Corridor" project. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 293553 |
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