Glacial Inventory - Headwaters Rio Elqui

The landforms in this inventory have been divided into primary categories for different glacier types: debris-free glacier, debris-covered glacier, glacieret/perennial snow, and rock glacier. We have added the category Glacier deposit which includes landforms that have no geomorphological evidence of recent movement and periglacial landforms. The differentiation between debris-covered glaciers and rock glaciers is described in the publication in the Journal of Maps. DOI forthcomeing. 

We have delineated and classified rock glaciers, glacier deposits, and some periglacial landforms following the latest International Permafrost Association (IPA) action group recommendations for rock glaciers (RGIK). The main focus of the inventory is on rock glaciers given that these are the most dominant type of glacier in the study area. In RGIK rock glaciers are defined as debris landforms generated by the former or current creep of frozen ground (permafrost), detectable in the landscape with the following morphologies: discernible talus front, possibly lateral margins and possibly ridge-and-furrow surface topography. We applied the “extended geomorphological footprint within the RGIK guidelines which includes the frontal and lateral margins. The upslope boundary delineation follows the RGIK with specific rules associated with the type of upslope connection (e.g. talus-connected versus glacier-connected).