Two early Holocene rock avalanches in the Bernese Alps (Rinderhorn, Switzerland)

• Two rock avalanches in the Rinderhorn area (Switzerland) were mapped and dated.
• Runout behavior was recreated with numerical simulations.
• Surface exposure dating constrains the two Rinderhorn rock avalanches to 9.8 ka.
• Coeval failure timing suggests simultaneous earthquake-triggering.

Large rock avalanches constitute a critical process modulating the evolution of alpine landscapes; however, the relatively infrequent occurrence of these high-magnitude events makes identifying underlying process controls challenging. Here we describe two rock avalanches in the Rinderhorn area of the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, providing new mapping of rock avalanche source areas and deposits, refined volume estimates for each event, runout modeling back-analyses, and absolute age constraint from cosmogenic 36Cl surface exposure dating. Results reveal that the Daubensee rock avalanche released ~ 4 million m3 of limestone sliding from the western crest of the Rinderhorn. Debris ran out across a Lateglacial moraine before reaching the valley bottom and spreading, leaving thin (on average 7 m) deposits across a broad area. The runout resulted in a Fahrböschung angle of 21°. Part of the deposit now lies beneath Lake Daubensee. The Klein Rinderhorn rock avalanche released ~ 37 million m3 of limestone along a dip-slope sliding plane, with a maximum runout distance of 4.3 km and estimated Fahrböschung angle of 14°. Deposits bulked to ~ 47 million m3 running up the opposing slope, with distinct hummocky morphology in the proximal area and a distal longitudinal flow ridge. These deposits were later modified and partly obscured by ice avalanches from the nearby Altels peak. Cosmogenic 36Cl surface exposure dating revealed nearly coincident ages for both rock avalanches of 9.8 ± 0.5 ka. The large lag time between local deglaciation and failure suggests that the events were not directly triggered by deglaciation. Rather, the concurrent exposure ages, also coinciding with the nearby Kander valley rock avalanche as well as paleoseismic records from nearby lakes, strongly suggest seismic triggering.