Drawing for: Beutel, J., Amschwand, D., and Weber, S.: Active Layer Boundary Conditions in Steep Rockwall Permafrost, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17074, doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17074, 2025.Our data from Murtèl suggest that coarse-blocky rock glaciers route winter precipitation through the active layer and permafrost body to the sub-permafrost aquifer, playing an important role in their catchments by contributing to baseflow in the absence of summer precipitation. In-blown snow and refreezing snowmelt builds up ground ice in the active layer in winter–spring that slowly melts in summer. Nonetheless, this process is a seasonal shift in water availability and cannot increase the total annual water budget.Gaia-graphy of the Murtèl water+ice cycle. This novel type of mapping puts the critical zone – “Earth’s outer skin“, the thin interface between atmo- and lithosphere – to the center. Inspired by: Arènes, A., Latour, B., & Gaillardet, J. (2018). Giving depth to the surface: An exercise in the Gaia-graphy of critical zones. The Anthropocene Review, 5(2), 120-135, doi:10.1177/2053019618782257.Gaia-graphy of the Murtèl water+ice cycle: step-wise explanation. First published at the Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2023, doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.23866.16329.Heat and water fluxes in a coarse-blocky active layer, inspired by Murtèl (2020). A sketch early in my PhD to sort my thoughts.
Pictures
The Murtèl coarse-blocky surface. The blue tubes (protecting data and power cables) lead down to a 3-m deep, heavily instrumented cavity where heat transfer processes were measured (destroyed by rock fall in Sep 2023).Piz Scerscen with its rock avalanche scar from the April 2024 event (photo: July 2024).
RGB-NIR image pairs
Kerns, Switzerland (July 2024)
Morteratsch glacier (July 2024)
Ochsehorn, Valais Alps (July 2024)
Near the spring of Rio San José, Chilean Andes (March 2025).
Murtèl
Before- & after webcam images of the Sep 2023 rock fall.
Comparison of visual light (RGB) and thermal infrared image of Murtèl. Day-time surface temperature is closely tied to the (visible) micro-topography.
Dominik Amschwand 