Holocene landslide activities in the Asahiike cirque, the north face of Mount Asahi, the Hida Range in central Japan

Abstract

We reinvestigated an elongated small ridge in the Asahiike Cirque of Mount Asahi, the northern Japanese Alps (the Hida Range).  Previously, this ridge was considered to be a push moraine formed in the Holocene.  However, our data show that this ridge was produced by gravitational mass rock deformation and landsliding on the cirque wall slopes in the past 700 yrs.  This ridge and adjacent valley floor are truncated by a thrust with small displacement.  Morphogenetic environments of the alpine and subalpine slopes in the northern Japanese Alps should be examined by not only glacial and periglacial geomorphology but landslide geomorphology.