Rebuilding Quaternary geology and geomorphology in the Japanese Alps with special reference to landslide activities since the Last Glacial period

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24300321
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Geography
• Research Institution: Senshu University
• Principal Investigator: KARIYA Yoshihiko 専修大学, 文学部, 教授 (70323433)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MATSUSHI Yuki 京都大学, 防災研究所, 准教授 (90596438) ; TAKAOKA Sadao 専修大学, 文学部, 教授 (90260786) ; HARAYAMA Satoru 信州大学, 理学部, 教授 (60293536) ; NISHII Ryoko 独立行政法人土木研究所, その他部局等, 研究員 (00596116)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SATO Go 帝京平成大学, 現代ライフ学部, 准教授 (00468406)
• Research Collaborator: SAITO Hitoshi 関東学院大学, 経済学部, 講師 (00709628)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 地すべり / 日本アルプス / 深層崩壊 / 第四紀 / 気候変動 / 地理情報システム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A key frame of terrains in the Japanese Alps (JA) has been created by igneous and orogenic activities in the Quaternary period. However, we should pay more attention to the role of landslides in warm periods that affected the formation of the middle to small scale landforms in the JA. Although previous geomorphologists in Japan have emphasized glacial and periglacial processes in the late Pleistocene, relict forms produced by those processes are sporadic in the JA under the present condition. Topographies and deposits caused by glaciations sometimes resemble those derived from landsliding. However, simplification of methodology and introduction of new techniques in chronology help us to distinguish landslide topographies-deposits from glacial ones. Landslides have also related to the development of alpine lakes as well as unique vegetation patches. This study is successful in providing new facts of landslide features to geomorphology, Quaternary science, and geoecology in Japan.

Free Research Field

自然地理学