Spatial distribution of natural dammed lakes in the Central Andes (31°-36°), Argentina: implications for outburst flood hazard

CORREAS GONZALEZ M.; MOREIRAS, S..M.; KLIMES, J.

In: Vilímek V., Wang F., Strom A., Sassa K., Bobrowsky P.T., Takara K. (eds) Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk. WLF 2020. ICL Contribution to Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction.

Springer

Año: 2021; p. 95 - 103

This paper presents an inventory of lakes in the Central Andes region (31°?36° S) of Argentina by using high resolution satellite images. Lakes were classified according to the damming processes or associated landforms. Statistical analysis of main lakes attributes was carried out showing that larger lakes are associated with volcanic and karstic landforms, while smaller ones correspond to thermokarst supraglacial lakes. Lake distribution is forced by the regional topography being mainly located in the periglacial and glacial environment (above the 3730 m a.s.l.). Moreover, latitudinal distribution of different types of lakes differs. Larger water bodies in the Argentinean Central Andes are landslides dammed except to the 34°?35° S volcanic region. These findings set the first step in hazard analysis and highlight the need for carrying out further research to assess outburst flood hazard in the Arid Central Andes of Argentina.