PAraglacial Rock-slope failures dating in Iceland

The objective of this project is to date paraglacial rock-slope failures in the eastern part of Iceland with a geomorphological approach, combining relative dating procedures. The temporal scale considered includes the whole deglaciation period, i.e. the last 15,000 years. Field investigations are selected in eastern areas of Iceland, where landslides are numerous (n=290) and already mapped by previous researches (Portier et al., 2023; https://journals.openedition.org/geomorphologie/17634).
We use several approaches:

(i) geomorphic analyses (landform mapping and geomorphological stacking; e.g. dated raised beaches covered by landslide deposits),
(ii) deposit relative dating through stratigraphy, radiocarbon and tephrochronology analyses and Schmidt-Hammer Exposure age Dating (SHED) methods.

Both approaches have already been applied in Iceland and have produced results with relative ages for seventeen landslides in the Skagafjörður region of northern Iceland published in the literature by the PARI-2 project PI and his team (Mercier et al., 2013, 2017; Coquin et al., 2015, 2016, 2019; Cossart et al., 2013, 2014, 2017; Feuillet et al., 2014; Decaulne et al., 2016; Peras et al., 2016). During the PARI-2 project (2022-2025), the Schmidt hammer exposure age dating method (SHED) was used to date seven landslides in the Bolungarvík-Suðureyri region in the Westfjords (Portier et al., 2024) and seventeen landslides in the Dýrafjörður and Önundarfjörður regions, also in the Westfjords (Portier et al., 2025 submitted). Other landslides were investigated in 2024 in the Gilsfjörður region (Westfjords) and during the 2025 field mission in the Norðfjörður. However, none of the 290 landslides mapped in the East Fjords have been dated to date.
The expected results are:

(i) New results for landslides chronology in the eastern Icelandic areas based on relative procedures. Those results will represent the first application of this chronology methods on landslides in this area of Iceland.
(ii) The impact of deglaciation on the evolution of landscapes and landforms. The contribution of glacial debuttressing and landsliding to glacial troughs development as cirques and U-shaped valley will be a significant new input to explain the excavation of so-called “glacial” landforms.