New Observations on Alpine Accordances in the Western United States
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8377100 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Will F Thompson (United States Department of the Army, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1968 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 650-669 |
| Publication date | 1968-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1968.tb01660.x |
| OpenAlex | W1968434876 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
Observations: Photointerpretive reconnaissance throughout the higher mountains of the western United States has shown that where alp slopes occur, they coincide with present timberlines, and that a gipfelflur (peak plain, alpine accordance) occurs about 600 meters above that level on the crests of all alpine ranges which reach that height. Within the region studied, very few peaks other than recent volcanic cones are seen to rise to a significant height above the 600 meter gipfelflur. Only two exceed 900 meters above timberline, and none exceed 1,200 meters above that level. Hypothesis: The high gipfelflur is interpreted as the topographic record of an interglacial timberline 600 meters above that of today, above which few summits in the western United States seem to have had sufficient mass to withstand truncation by the wasting processes characteristic of open slopes under alpine climatic conditions. Subsequent uplift of the ranges in question has not been sufficient to distort that record substantially. The present alp slope zone (timberline transition zone) is considered the lower altitudinal limit of effective control of mass wasting processes by timberline, and as the level at which alpine frost processes have been replaced as the dominant geomorphic activity at timberline by alpine glaciation (or vice versa) during each onset and cessation of alpine glacial climate during the Quaternary
Alpine climate · Climate change · Geography · Geomorphology · Glacial period · Glacier · Interglacial · Landslide · Mass wasting · Physical geography · Plateau (mathematics) · Quaternary · Ecology · Fire effects on ecosystems · Geology · Lichen and fungal ecology · Oceanography · Paleontology · Rangeland and Wildlife Management
| Citations per year | 0.02 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1984 - 1984 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |