A chronology of landsliding based on archaeological and documentary data: Pavlovské vrchy Hills, Western Carpathian Flysch Belt

Abstract

pavlovské vrchy Hills represent a distinctive elevation near the czech-Austrian border where the active, dormant and relict landslides cover 12% of the area. Here we focused on the chronology of landsliding in this area using geological, archaeological and historical evidence. The earliest records of landsliding were determined in locations underlying the dated archaeological settlements. The Upper Paleolithic settlement complex dated between 37-24 ka cal BP, was originally deposited over these landslides. It was consequently destroyed in certain places by additional landslides preceding the last (Upper Pleniglacial) loess deposition (22 ka cal BP). These landslides took place before and after the Upper Paleolithic occupation of this area. This Pleistocene landslide event ranks among the oldest (albeit indirectly) dated landslide within the Czech part of the Western Carpathian Flysch Belt. The chronology of later, historical, landsliding was determined using written records (chronicles, official reports, archival evidence, etc.). Continuous records of landsliding were available as of the middle of the seventeenth century. The major concentration of landslides occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century (1910-1915). The 1663 landslide is currently the oldest landslide, in the Czech part of the Western Carpathian Flysch Belt, which was dated on the basis of documentary data. The Western Carpathian Flysch Belt (WCFB) ranks among the areas most susceptible to landsliding in the Czech Republic 1-5. As many as 15,215 landslides, representing 75% of all landslides registered within the entire Czech Republic (CR), can be found in the Czech part of the WCFB (6,465 km 2). Holec et al. 6 claimed that the ratio of landslide-affected areas in the entire WCFB is 13.6%. Certain local studies, conducted in the Czech part of WCFB, presented even higher numbers, up to 20% 7. Many types of landsliding can be found in the Czech WCFB, e.g. shallow landslides 3,8 , debris flows 9,10 , deep-seated landslides 2,11-13 , rockfalls 14-16 or complex flow-like landslides 9,10,17. A number of slopes in the highest parts of WCFB were also affected by DSGSD [e.g. 11,18,19 ]. current Research on Landslide Dating in the czech WcfB Pleistocene landslides. The vast majority of dated landsliding in the Czech part of WCFB are from the Holocene age. The inventory of the dated WCFB landslides with new radiocarbon dates (from woody and other organic remnants within the landslide body or from lakes on the landslide surface) allowed for the identification of landslide phases in the Holocene 20. The results of dating the slope movements by the 14 C determination method in the Czech WCFB have yielded so far results from the youngest phase of sliding in the Holocene 17. Pánek et al. 17 reported the results of dating from 13 localities ranging from 12.86-9.30 ka (Kykula locality; cal BP) to 510-470 years (Pluskovec locality; cal BP). Virtually, these data fall mostly into the Holocene period (0-11.734 ka cal BP). Many well-known, large-scale landslides...

CHILDA – Czech Historical Landslide Database

“…The oldest records were found in local chronicles and described landsliding in two villages (Jankovice and Košíky) in the close vicinity of Halenkovice in 1915. Bíl et al (2020) created an overview of the chronology of landsliding in the Pavlovské vrchy, an area at the Czech-Austria border belonging to the Western Carpathian Flysch Belt. They determined dates for 30 historical landslides.…”

“…The number of these sources have been, however, subjected to academic scrutiny mostly in historical climatology and hydrology (Kjeldsen et al, 2014;Brázdil et al, 2018a). Similarly, Bíl et al (2020) combined different documentary and archaeological data to compile a chronology of landsliding in the Pavlovské vrchy (Czechia, OWC) and described the basic historical landslide terminology. The conceptual differences in hydrometeorological and geomorphologic hazards do not allow for uncritical transposition of the climatological insights into the historical landslide research and therefore call for new insights into the potential of the documentary data (Crozier and Glade, 1999;Raška et al, 2014b).…”

CHILDA − Czech Historical Landslide Database

“…Raška et al (2015) analysed historical landslides in two Czech regions and found seven different terms referring to landslides and three for rockfalls. In total, five German different terms were used to describe the landslides in the Pavlovské vrchy Hills (OWC) between the middle of the seventeenth-twentieth centuries (Bíl et al, 2020).…”

“…The availability of sources also displays a distinct geographical variation due to different historical developments in individual regions. Several smaller uncertainties related to historical landslides have thus appeared, e.g., a lack of narrative sources before 1920 and in the Czech border areas after 1945 (Bíl et al, 2020) or difficulties with recognition of landslides and scoured slopes during the floods in early documentary records. As regards the Czech border areas, chronicles were lost or carried away mainly by German inhabitants displaced after 1945.…”

“…This occurred, along with other regions, in the landslide prone areas of the Pavlovské vrchy Hills or parts of NW Czechia (CS and DV). Only some of the lost information from the chronicles became available again via a historical synthesis published in the second half of the twentieth century (Bíl et al, 2020). In addition, keeping memory books was recommended by the state in 1836 and chronicles were made mandatory from 1920 onward, therefore any older events are either missing in these sources or were recorded retrospectively with some risk of misinterpretation.…”