A model for the flow of rock glaciers

A constitutive model is developed for describing the response of rock glaciers that takes into account the effect of the shear rate, pressure and the volume fraction of the rocks and sand grains trapped within the interstices of the rock glacier on the viscosity of the rock glacier. Using the model, we describe the motion of the Murtèl-Corvatsch rock glacier by corroborating the predictions of the model with the experimental data available for the displacement of a vertical borehole, by appealing to a simple semi-inverse solution for the velocity, pressure and volume fraction fields. The predictions of the model agree quite well with the experimental results.© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.