Mountain Hazards associated with Permafrost Degradation

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Environmental Studies, grade: 1,3, University of Kent (Department of Geography), course: Cryospheric Processes and climate change, language: English, abstract: Permafrost degradation due to global warming is a widespread phenomenon in recent dec-ades (Lemke et al. 2007), latitudinal as well as altitudinal. Dealing with permafrost related mountain hazards requires knowledge on the exact permafrost distribution throughout mountain areas. Therefore, a monitoring project on European permafrost distribution will be discussed. Furthermore, it has to be determined, what mountain hazards exist in general and which of them could be affected by permafrost degradation in terms of frequency and/or intensity. Two different types of mountain hazards will be examined in detail: rockfall and outburst flood of permafrost dammed lakes. Moreover, the impact of mountain hazards on the society will be marked. The focus will be on investigations which can be done, before undertaking engineering projects. After that a brief overview on perspectives in terms of climate scenarios and their possible impact on permafrost degradation and mountain hazards will be given. Finally, some concluding statements will be made.