Inventory and Monitoring of Rock Glaciers and Cryogenic Processes in the Central Andes of Mendoza, Argentina: Birth and Extinction of a Periglacial Lake

DARÍO TROMBOTTO; M. GABRIELA LENZANO; MARIANO CASTRO

Tenth International Conference on Permafrost

The Northern Publisher

Lugar: Salekhard; Año: 2012; p. 419 - 424

New inventories of rock glaciers inthe Cordillera del Tigre (32º 11´ S; 32º 45´ S) and the Cordón del Plata (32º40?S; 33º 24?S) were made with manual digitizing of ASTER images andinterpretation of photographs. The Cordillera del Tigre (NW Mendoza) has asurface with possible permafrost of approximately 1171 km2 and the Cordóndel Plata has 956 km2. The lower permafrostlimit was estimated to be 3600 m ASL. 182 new active rock glaciers were countedin the Cordillera del Tigre with an average surface of 0.35 km2 and an area of about64 km2. The largestrock glacier comprises a surface of 2.37 km2. Rock glaciers appear preferablywhen their detritic and nival feeding zone has a southerly orientation. Thelower limit of uncovered ice lies at 4300 m ASL approximately. A build up ofthe creeping permafrost generated a lake of approximately 7.9 ha on one of thetributaries of the Mendoza river.