Dendrogeomorphological Analysis of a Landslide near Lago, Calabria (Italy)

Abstract

Dendrogeomorphology, first introduced by Alestalo (1971) has been applied successfully in the spatial and temporal analysis of mass movements by many authors: Shroder (1978) investigated landslides in the Table Cliffs Plateau of Utah finding peak periods of mass-movement reactivation. Many authors (Terasme 1975; Shroder 1978; Hupp 1984; Strunk 1992; Denneler and Schweingruber 1993) found that trees subject to stress due to mass-movement have manifested strong and sudden decreases in ring growth. This effect on tree growth was also found by Orombelli and Gnaccolini (1972) in dating the Vajont landslide in Italy through the study of tilted conifers. Another important kind of information on the causes of landslide movement was pointed out in the papers of Jibson and Keefer (1988) and Filion et al. (1991). Those authors discovered coincidence between the dating of tree disturbances and past strong earthquakes in the Mississippi Valley and Rivière du Gouffre, respectively. Dendrochronology was used by Hupp (1984), Van Asch and Van Steijn (1991) and Strunk (1992) to evaluate the frequency of landslide activity. Kashiwaya et al. (1989) have investigated the relationship between tree-ring width and heavy rainfall in the landslide-prone area of Kobe district in Japan.