Rockfall-Dammed Lakes in the Baikal Region: Evidence from the Past and Prospects for the Future

The mountain province of East Siberia, which includes the Baikal Rift system, is a zone of high tectonic and seismic hazard. Earthquakes and coseismic faulting are dangerous not only by themselves but also as far as they initiate rock collapse and downslope movement of unconsolidated deposits, which may block river valleys and produce rockfall-dammed lakes. Within some rifts of the rift system, evidence of past dammed lakes was discovered that arose instantly, in a geological sense, and flooded large areas of forest. In mountains around some rift basins, small living dammed lakes were encountered, as well as traces of catastrophic debris flows that may have accompanied breaching of earlier collapse-produced dams. Analysis of geomorphological setting in the region, especially in the Muya Rift Basin, revealed conditions favourable to hazardous origination of rockfall-dammed lakes. A large dammed lake may come into existence due to the collapse of bedrock over the narrow antecedent valley of Vitim in the Muya Rift. Preliminary estimates based upon data on the Vitim River discharge showed that the lake might form in as short as 27 days, though the rapidity of its formation, and hence the degree of the risk, can vary as a function of the highly variable amount of summer discharge of the river. Rockfall-dammed lakes may also originate in the floors of Chara and Tunka Rift Basins. Due to their rapid formation, lakes will bring about extensive flooding and cause danger to the taiga, railways and constructions in this populated developing area, and will cause degradation of the permafrost. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998