The extremely long-runout Komansu rock avalanche in the Trans Alai Range, Pamir Mountains, southern Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Massive rock avalanches form some of the largest landslide deposits on Earth and are major geohazards in high-relief mountains. This work reinterprets a previously reported glacial deposit in the Alai Valley of Kyrgyzstan as the result of an extremely long-runout, probably coseismic, rock avalanche from the Komansu River catchment. Total runout of the rock avalanche is ~28 km, making it one of the longest-runout subaerial non-volcanic rock avalanches thus far identified on Earth. This runout length appears to require a rock volume of ~20 km3; however, the likely source zone in the Trans Alai range likely contained just ~4 km3 of rock, and presently, the deposit has a volume of only 3–5 km3; a pure rock avalanche volume of >10 km3 is therefore impossible, so the event was much more mobile than most non-volcanic rock avalanches. Explaining this exceptional mobility is crucial for present-day hazard analysis. There is unequivocal sedimentary evidence for intense basal fragmentation, and the deposit in the Alai Valley has prominent hummocks; these indicate a rock avalanche rather than a rock-ice avalanche origin. The event occurred 5,000–11,000 yr B.P., after the region’s glaciers had begun retreating, implying that supraglacial runout was limited. Current volume—runout relationships suggest a maximum runout of ~10 km for a 4-km3 rock avalanche. Volcanic debris avalanches, however, are more mobile than non-volcanic rock avalanches due to their much higher source water content; a rock avalanche containing a similarly high water content would require a volume of about 8 km3 to explain the extreme runout of the Komansu event. Rock and debris avalanches can entrain large amounts of material during runout, with some doubling their initial volume. The best current explanation of the Komansu rock avalanche thus involves an initial failure of ~4 km3 of rock debris, with high water content probably deriving from large glaciers on the edifice that subsequently entrained ~4 km3 of valley material together with further glacial ice, resulting in a total runout of 28 km. It is as yet unclear whether glacial retreat has rendered a present-day repetition of such an event impossible.