This book focuses on Peru’s highest and most glacierized mountain range – the Cordillera Blanca. This mountain range experienced numerous disasters in the past (e.g. lake Palcacocha outburst in 1941, earthquake-induced ice and rock avalanche from Mt. Huascarán in 1970) and has attracted the attention of researchers from around the world. The 15 chapters of the book span from broadly thematic topics of geology, geomorphology, climate, hydrology and hydrogeology, lakes, glaciation, and environmental settings to more specific topics and emergent themes of relevance for the Cordillera Blanca, including studies of various types of natural hazards (landslides, GLOFs). While most of the chapters focus on biophysical processes of the natural environment, several chapters explore the complex interactions between humans and environmental factors, providing insights and perspectives from social science and the humanities. This book offers an unprecedentedly comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge about the geo-environmental changes in the Cordillera Blanca.
Table of Content
Chapter 1. Geology and Tectonic Setting of the Cordillera Blanca (Hall, S.).- Chapter 2. Geomorphological setting of the Cordillera Blanca (Vilímek, V.).- Chapter 3. Climate of the Cordillera Blanca (Yarleque, C.).- Chapter 4. Hydrology and hydrogeology in the Cordillera Blanca (Baraër, M.).- Chapter 5. Lakes of the Cordillera Blanca: typology, inventory, bathymetry and evolution (Emmer, A.).- Chapter 6. Glaciation and the environments of the Cordillera Blanca (Mark, B.G.).- Chapter 7. Climate-morphogenetic and morphodynamic zones of the Western Cordillera in Peru (Vilímek, V.).- Chapter 8. Landslides in the Cordillera Blanca (Klimeš, J.).- Chapter 9. Stability of moraine and rock slopes at glacial lakes – two case studies in the Cordillera Blanca (Novotný, J.).- Chapter 10. Glacial lake outburst floods in the Cordillera Blanca (Emmer, A.).- Chapter 11. Current Perspectives on Community, Land, and Water in the Cordillera Blanca (Moulton, H.).- Chapter 12. Human interaction with glacier-related hazards in the Cordillera Blanca (Wegner, S.A.).- Chapter 13. How people feel endangered by natural hazards: interpretation of questionnaires in the Callejón de Huaylas (Vilímek, V.).- Chapter 14. Novel proglacial landscapes and ecosystems in the Cordillera Blanca (Zimmer, A.).- Chapter 15. Anne Smith Peck, Social Systems, and Landscape Change in the Cordillera Blanca from 1908 to the present (Polk, M.H.).