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The Lavini di Marco, Marocche di Dro and Molveno rock avalanches in Trentino, and the Termeno landslide in South Tyrol are here presented as case studies for the western Dolomites(Adige and Sarca Valleys, NE Italy). Their structural predisposition, run-out and timing are discussed, also in consideration of other evidence for the Alpine region. The detailed geomorphologi-cal mapping of deposits and their release area, combined with regional and local structural analysis, isotopic dating, and numerical modelling, have led to updated interpretations of their mechanisms, timing, and triggering/driving forces. In particular, the major role of structural controls is investigated. Intense rock damage and rock fatigue, which are related to tectonic activity along the Southern Giudicarie and Schio-Vicenza fault systems, together with high topographic relief energy and local dip slope, all combine to promote detachment of huge rock volumes. Besides structural predisposition, other factors like glacial erosion/unloading and climate can exert a primary control. Three large rock avalanches occurred between 5-3 ka ago: Lavini di Marco(200 Mm, 3.0±0.4 ka), Marocca Principale(1000 Mm, 5.3 ±0.9 ka)belonging to the Marocche di Dro complex, and Molveno(600 Mm, 4.8±0.5 ka). This period has been recognized as one of enhanced slope failure activity in the Alps, perhaps related to the climatic transition to cooler and wetter conditions at the beginning of the late Holocene. This is particularly valid for the close contemporaneity of the Marocca Principale and Molveno rock avalanches. Conversely, younger ages at the Kas rock avalanche(Marocche di Dro complex; 300 Mm, 1.1±0.2 ka)likely imply a close relation with seismic forcing.

The investigation and modelling of permafrost distribution, particularly in areas of discontinuous permafrost, is challenging due to spatial heterogeneity, remoteness of measurement sites and data scarcity. We have designed a strategy for standardizing different local data sets containing evidence of the presence or absence of permafrost into an inventory for the entire European Alps. With this brief communication, we present the structure and contents of this inventory. This collection of permafrost evidence not only highlights existing data and allows new analyses based on larger data sets, but also provides complementary information for an improved interpretation of monitoring results.

Do human societies from around the world exhibit similarities in the way that they are structured, and show commonalities in the ways that they have evolved? These are long-standing questions that have proven difficult to answer. To test between competing hypotheses, we constructed a massive repository of historical and archaeological information known as “Seshat: Global History Databank.” We systematically coded data on 414 societies from 30 regions around the world spanning the last 10,000 years. We were able to capture information on 51 variables reflecting nine characteristics of human societies, such as social scale, economy, features of governance, and information systems. Our analyses revealed that these different characteristics show strong relationships with each other and that a single principal component captures around three-quarters of the observed variation. Furthermore, we found that different characteristics of social complexity are highly predictable across different world regions. These results suggest that key aspects of social organization are functionally related and do indeed coevolve in predictable ways. Our findings highlight the power of the sciences and humanities working together to rigorously test hypotheses about general rules that may have shaped human history., This work was supported by a John Templeton Foundation Grant (to the Evolution Institute) entitled “Axial-Age Religions and the Z-Curve of Human Egalitarianism,” a Tricoastal Foundation Grant (to the Evolution Institute) entitled “The Deep Roots of the Modern World: The Cultural Evolution of Economic Growth and Political Stability,” Economic and Social Research Council Large Grant REF RES-060-25-0085 entitled “Ritual, Community, and Conflict,” an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme Grant 694986, and Grant 644055 from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ALIGNED; www.aligned-project.eu). T.E.C. is supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement 716212).

The Austroalpine nappe stack to the west of the Tauern Window is made of three main tectonometamorphic units that are, from top to bottom: the Ötztal-Stubai complex, the Schneeberg and the Texel units. The Ötztal-Stubai complex consists of a polymetamorphic basement and Permian-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that underwent metamorphism and deformation during the Alpine orogeny. E and NE of Vipiteno (Schneeberg, Telfer Weissen, Tribulaun) the nonconformity surface between basement and the metasedimentary succession has been mapped in details in the frame of the CARG project of the Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano-Alto Adige. As the non-conformity is still roughly preserved, structural investigations across such discontinuity are useful to reconstruct the Alpine deformation history. Mafic to intermediate dikes that cut across the basement regional foliation but do not intrude the post-Variscan cover are additional structural markers. The Ötztal cover consists of a metaconglomerate (Basal Conglomerate Auct., Permian), containing quartz, gneiss and garnetite clasts, a thin level (1-20 meters thick) of quartz-carbonatic schists, calcitic-dolomitic marbles, graphitic calcschists and, at the top, dolomitic marbles. Even if the non-conformity between the basement and the overlying metaconglomerates is variably interested by shear zones, the occurrence in the metaconglomerate of clasts strictly deriving from the underlying basement suggests that displacement due to shearing is limited: garnetite clasts occur only in the Schneeberg area where garnetite levels, not found elsewhere, occur within Ötztal micaschists. Alpine deformation resulted in a penetrative foliation in the sedimentary cover coupled with a stretching lineation due to a top-to-W (NW) shearing. Mafic-intermediate dikes are substantially undeformed, displaying only a faint foliation close to the contacts with host gneisses. The Ötztal basement did not have suffered penetrative recrystallization and deformation during the Alpine cycle: dikes cut across not only the regional foliation but also the last fold system that fold it. P-T estimates constrain metamorphic condition in metaconglomerates and dikes at 450-500°C and 0.8-1.0 GPa. Ar-Ar dating of micas aligned along the main foliation in conglomerates and recrystallized biotite in dikes provide ages of about 85 Ma. These data are very close to the age of the eclogitic metamorphism in the Texel unit and the HP amphibolite facies metamorphism in the Schneeberg complex. All together these data suggest that metamorphic peak conditions were experienced roughly contemporaneously by the three units when they were at different crustal levels. During exhumation, the HP Texel unit was first coupled with the Schneeberg unit (the two units show a common evolution since the amphibolite facies re-equilibration of the Texel eclogites) and then the Schneeberg-Texel was brought in contact with the Ötztal basement and cover at shallow crustal level.

We present an integrated approach that aims to: (i) document the spatial distribution of mass-wasting activity and sediment production in the Saldur River basin (97 km2); (ii) detect causal linkages between mass-wasting intensity and the potential spatial distribution of discontinuous permafrost; (iii) identify source-to-sink colluvial sedimentary pathways as modulated by the spatial organization of active and relict glacial and periglacial depositional landforms; and (iv) test the reliability of a geomorphometry-based index of sediment connectivity. In so doing we compare spatial patterns of process-based and structural geomorphic connectivity. To these ends, we map rock glaciers, protalus ramparts and moraines, and compile a field- and air photobased multi-temporal (1959-1969-1982-1997-2000-2006-2008-2011) inventory of colluvial sediment sources. We then combine these data with two historical datasets of debris flow and landslide events (both implemented and maintained by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) and analyse mass-wasting spatial distribution and intensity in relation to proximity to glacier fronts, intact and relict periglacial landforms, and a permafrost index map (i.e. PermaNET; http://www.permanet-alpinespace.eu/). This work is part of SedAlp (www.sedalp.eu), a project funded through the Alpine Space Programme.

In the last three decades generalized atmospheric temperature rise has produced rapid glacial retreat and permafrost degradation in high mountain environments of the European Alps. While it is widely recognized that these changes can impart general instability to mountain slopes (i.e. several projects have documented single case studies of high magnitude-low frequency, catastrophic slope failures), to our knowledge, there appears to be little empirical data available for investigating the spatial distribution of mass-wasting intensity through time in high mountain areas in relation to permafrost degradation and deglaciation patterns. This is a critical shortcoming. Understanding and quantifying the influence of similar transient conditions on mass-wasting processes holds critical long-term implications on the overall sediment flux reshaping mountain landscapes (e.g., post-LGM landscape evolution), as well as more practical short-term applications on water quality issues, damage control/prevention to infrastructure, and reservoir siltation, to mention some. In this contribution we present an integrated approach that aims to: (i) document the spatial distribution of mass-wasting activity and sediment production in the Saldur River basin (97 km^2); (ii) detect causal linkages between mass-wasting intensity, the potential spatial distribution of discontinuous permafrost, and patterns of glacier retreat; and (iii) identify source-to-sink colluvial sedimentary pathways as modulated by the spatial organization of glacial and periglacial landforms. To these ends, we map rock glaciers, protalus ramparts and moraines, and compile a field- and air photo-based multi-temporal (1959-2012) inventory of colluvial sediment sources. We then combine these data with two historical datasets of debris flow and landslide events (both implemented and maintained by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) and analyse mass-wasting spatial distribution and intensity in relation to proximity of glacier fronts, intact and relict periglacial landforms, and a permafrost index map (implemented through PermaNET; http://www.permanet-alpinespace.eu/). This work is part of SedAlp (www.sedalp.eu), a project funded through the Alpine Space Programme.

While it is widely recognized that deglaciation and permafrost degradation can induce generalized instability in steep mountain terrain, beyond the documentation of single catastrophic mass-wasting events, there appears to be little empirical work on how the colluvial sediment cascade functions under conditions of increasing atmospheric temperature rise in a formerly glaciated landscape structure. Understanding and quantifying the influence of similar transient conditions on mass-wasting processes holds critical long-term implications on the overall sediment flux reshaping post-LGM landscape evolution, as well as more practical short-term applications on water quality issues, damage control to infrastructure, and reservoir siltation. We present an integrated approach that aims to: (i) document the spatial distribution of mass-wasting activity and sediment production in the Saldur River basin (97 km2); (ii) detect causal linkages between mass-wasting intensity, the potential spatial distribution of discontinuous permafrost, and patterns of glacier retreat; (iii) identify source-to-sink colluvial sedimentary pathways as modulated by the spatial organization of active and relict glacial and periglacial landforms; and (iv) test the reliability of a geomorphometry-based index of sediment connectivity. To these ends, we map rock glaciers, protalus ramparts and moraines, and compile a field- and air photo-based multi-temporal (1959-1969-1982-1997-2000-2006-2008-2011) inventory of colluvial sediment sources. We then combine these data with two historical datasets of debris flow and landslide events (both implemented and maintained by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) and analyse mass-wasting spatial distribution and intensity in relation to proximity to glacier fronts, intact and relict periglacial landforms, and a permafrost index map (i.e., PermaNET; http://www.permanet-alpinespace.eu/). This work is part of SedAlp (www.sedalp.eu), a project funded through the Alpine Space Programme, and benefits from COST Action ES1306: Connecteur.

Ultramafic rocks in the Mt. Hochwart HP mélange (Eastern Italian Alps) preserve a series of metasomatic mineral zones generated by infiltration of hydrous fluids at T of 660-700°C and P

The whole flank of Ganderberg western slope (3.75 km2) (lat. 46°51'12'', long. 11°10'15'') is involved in a Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation phenomenon. The upper part is characterized by several joint surfaces, with possible wedge failure mechanisms. In particular, the northern crown ridge is divided into three sectors with noticeably different indications of subsidence and displacement. The orientation of the joint planes and evidence of vertical movements of a distinct rock block allow a potential rock avalanche to be hypothesized (up to the volume of 4.5 x 105 m3). On the basis of historical archives analysis it was found that the same slope was involved in a rock avalanche event dating back to 1401. The landslide deposits created a 35 m deep lake, damming the Passer Torrent, creating the Passeirer Wildsee or Kummersee. Aim of the study is the evaluation of residual risk scenarios and its mitigation by means of monitoring and data interpretation using Saito and Fukuzono techniques.