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Rock slope instabilities cause significant risk in populated alpine areas. To anticipate the final failure, a detailed understanding of the preparatory process dynamics including all potential promoting and triggering factors is needed. While standard external and internal drivers are known, measured evidence and a quantification of their relevance at a specific site is often lacking.Here, we present the evolution of the imminent Hochvogel summit failure (200,000–600,000 m³) over multiple decades towards the current highly sensitive system. We identified the three most relevant potential drivers at the Hochvogel instability: (i) earthquakes, (ii) seasonal and short-term meteorological effects and (iii) increasing internal stress. To quantify these, we use diverse sources of information. Earthquake catalogues and the records of the regional seismic broadband stations help to constrain known historical rock fall events at the Hochvogel. The effect of precipitation events, snowmelt and temperature is quantified by the analysis of high-resolution crack opening and rain data of the last four years. Finally, we exploit the record of our local seismic network to reveal internal rock bridge failures, rock fall activity in the flanks and the seismic stressing of the instable mass due to local earthquakes.The current process dynamics prove a close-to-failure status of the instability. The combination of historic records and high-resolution real-time data not only makes the Hochvogel a benchmark site for alpine hazard early warning but also enables the comprehensive definition and quantification of its relevant drivers. This will improve the global understanding of rock failure dynamics and so the anticipation ability for instable rock slopes.

Rockslides and rock avalanches are amongst the most destructive natural hazards in the alpine environment. The Flims rockslide is the largest known rock-slope failure in the Alps, which provides excellent outcrops and has fascinated researchers since the early 20th century. The postulated impact of the Flims rockslide on Lake Bonaduz caused intensely fluidized rock material, which formed the Bonaduz Formation and toma hills, probably accompanied by a catastrophic impact wave. So far, this hypothesized sequence of events is based only on sedimentological and geomorphic analyses. We present electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) profiles, which we correlated with the sedimentological information obtained from outcrops and drill logs. Here, geophysical evidence on a metre and decametre scale complements prior outcrop and sample intervals with much smaller representativeness. Our study provides new insights into the distribution, thickness, and internal structure of the Bonaduz Formation and the toma hills as well as other flood deposits around the Ils Aults, where we studied the sediment to a depth of up to 160 m. There is geophysical evidence that the Bonaduz Formation formed an onlap onto the Ils Aults and is thus the stratigraphically younger unit. The toma hills consist of blocky cores with an agglomeration of smaller mixed sediments, which drift and override the toma core, causing their smoothly shaped top. We consider simultaneous transport of the hills within the Bonaduz Formation but a slightly slower movement at the front due to a bulldozing effect. This study contributes to an improved understanding of (i) the complex stratigraphical context of the Tamins and Flims deposits, (ii) water-rich entrainment in rock avalanches, and (iii) the genesis and transport of toma hills.

Rock avalanches destroy and reshape landscapes in only a few minutes and are among the most hazardous processes on Earth. The surface morphology of rock avalanche deposits and the interaction with the underlying material are crucial for runout properties and reach. Water within the travel path is displaced, producing large impact waves and reducing friction, leading to long runouts. We hypothesize that the 0.2 km3 Holocene Eibsee rock avalanche from Mount Zugspitze in the Bavarian Alps overran and destroyed Paleolake Eibsee and left a unique sedimentological legacy of processes active during the landslide. We captured 9.5 km of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) profiles across the rock avalanche deposits, with up to 120 m penetration depth and more than 34 000 datum points. The ERT profiles reveal up to ~50 m thick landslide debris, locally covering up to ~30 m of rock debris with entrained fine‐grained sediments on top of isolated remnants of decametre‐wide paleolake sediments. The ERT profiles allow us to infer processes involved in the interaction of the rock avalanche with bedrock, lake sediments, and morainal sediments, including shearing, bulging, and bulldozing. Complementary data from drilling, a gravel pit exposure, laboratory tests, and geomorphic features were used for ERT calibration. Sediments overrun by the rock avalanche show water‐escape structures. Based on all of these datasets, we reconstructed both position and size of the paleolake prior to the catastrophic event. Our reconstruction of the event contributes to process an understanding of the rock avalanche and future modelling and hazard assessment. Here we show how integrated geomorphic, geophysical, and sedimentological approaches can provide detailed insights into the impact of a rock avalanche on a lake. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Eibsee rock avalanche detached from Mount Zugspitze and impacted and destroyed Paleolake Eibsee. Paleolake Eibsee was larger than modern Lake Eibsee; the rock avalanche deposit covers the northern half of the paleolake. The complementary application of geomorphology, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and sedimentology allows for ERT calibration at seven different sites, where materials (rock avalanche, bedrock, lake clay, mixed sediments) and effects of the impact (bulldozing, bulging, overriding of secondary lobes, splashing of boulders) can be distinguished., Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes e.V. (German National Academic Foundation): http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004350

The ~0.2 km3 Eibsee rock avalanche impacted Paleolake Eibsee and completely displaced its waters. This study analyses the lake impact and the consequences, and the catchment response to the landslide. A quasi‐3D seismic reflection survey, four sediment cores from modern Lake Eibsee, reaching far down into the rock avalanche mass, nine radiocarbon ages, and geomorphic analysis allow us to distinguish the main rock avalanche event from a secondary debris avalanche and debris flow. The highly fluidized debris avalanche formed a megaturbidite and multiple swashes that are recorded in the lake sediments. The new calibrated age for the Eibsee rock avalanche of ~4080–3970 cal yr BP indicates a coincidence with rockslides in the Fernpass cluster and subaquatic landslides in Lake Piburg and Lake Plansee, and raises the possibility that a large regional earthquake triggered these events. We document a complex history of erosion and sedimentation in Lake Eibsee, and demonstrate how the catchment response and rebirth of the lake are revealed through the complementary application of geophysics, sedimentology, radiocarbon dating, and geomorphology. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Sedimentological, geophysical and geomorphological investigation in and around Lake Eibsee allows to decipher three rock‐slope failures from Mount Zugspitze: (i) the Eibsee rock avalanche ~4000 cal yr BP; (ii) a debris avalanche in the aftermath; and (iii) a large debris flow ~3740 cal yr BP. The Eibsee rock avalanche was re‐dated to a refined age of 4089–3876 cal yr BP. The coincidence with major events in the Fernpass rockslide cluster increases the likelihood of a prehistoric earthquake trigger., Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes e.V. (German National Academic Foundation): http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004350, British Society for Geomorphology http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010165

Rock avalanches destroy and reshape landscapes within only few minutes and are among the most hazardous processes on earth. Water in the travel path may accelerate the rock avalanche, with longer runouts as a result. So far no study has aimed at proving the existence of a paleolake pushed out by a rock avalanche and further analysing the interaction of the moving mass with the former lake. Especially for ancient long-runout mass movements this could be the key to explain exceptional runout lengths.In this study at the Zugspitze / Eibsee rock avalanche we prove the existence of, and the impact onto a paleolake inside the rock-avalanche trajectories. We assume that there has been a paleo-Lake Eibsee which was displaced by the ~200 mio. m³ rock avalanche. Our approach shows a complementary application of geomorphological mapping (over ~5 km²) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) measurements (8 profiles with in total ~9.5 km length), combined with sedimentological analysis in outcrops and drillings. The geoelectrical profiles give us up to ~120 m deep insights into the structure, thickness and distribution of the rock-avalanche deposits, the interactive processes with the lake water and sediments, and the paleotopography. Sediments exposed in outcrops show water-escape structures at the front of the rock avalanche. The data further allow for ERT-calibration at 7 different sites, where it is possible to distinguish materials (rock avalanche, bedrock, lake clay, mixed sediments) and interactive processes of the rock avalanche with the lake and substrate (bulldozing, bulging, overriding of secondary lobes). Here we show how complementary geophysical, geomorphological and sedimentological applications on terrestrial deposits provide detailed insights into multiple effects of impacting of a rock avalanche onto a lake.