Slushflows in A Subarctic Environment, Kilpisjärvi, Finnish Lapland

Abstract

Slushflows are a potentially significant hydrological and sediment transport mechanism in the nival zone. They have previously been studied mainly in the context of wet snow avalanches within gullies on the steep slopes of mountain areas, but valley-bottom flows in nonalpine areas of the arctic and subarctic may have been underestimated. Evidence of the repeated occurrence of such slushflows in the Kilpisjärvi region, Finnish Lapland, is presented. Field diagnosis is stressed, since it may be that the underestimation of this important though low-frequency sediment transport process has been a result of failure to recognize its characteristic attributes in nonalpine situations.