The 3rd fieldwork season within the project “Alpine Rock Slopes” lead by Daniel Draebing took place one and a half weeks in the Gaisberg Valley, Austrian Alps, and three weeks the Turtmann Valley, Swiss Alps. In the Gaisberg Valley, the fieldwork team consisting of the PI and 2 MSc student (upper left figure) applied geophysical and sedimentological measurements on moraines. They also conducted laserscanning measurements to calculate backweathering rates and observed a rockfall from a deglaciated rockwall (upper middle figure). The same measurements were also conducted by a slightly different team consisting of the PI and 3 BSc/MSc students in the first fielwork week in the Turtmann Valley (upper right figure).
Based on the approach by Draebing and Eichel (2017), the team, Jana Eichel and a MSc student (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT) combined 2D and 3D Electrical resistivity measurements (middle figure) with UAV missions and detail geomorphic and vegetation mapping on solifluction lobes in different development stages. The measurement campaign aims to quantify the solifluction development model by Eichel et al. (2017).
During the last fieldwork week, the team (lower left figure) was joined by Alistair Curry (University of Herfordshire) and Teja Kattenborn (KIT). Aim of the fieldwork is to quantify paraglacial processes on lateral moraine slopes to support the conceptual model by Eichel et al. (2018). Therefore, the team conducted geomorphic, geotechnical, sedimentological and remote sensing techniques on lateral moraines of different ages within the Turtmann Glacier foreland (lower middle and right figure).