Rock Glacier Inventory of the Bernese Alps, Switzerland

Between 1992 and 1994, an inventory of rock glaciers was established for the entire Bernese Alps in western Switzerland, covering approximately 4200 km². The dataset was created through the interpretation of aerial photographs and field work, documenting periglacial features in a major European watershed region. It provides a geospatial record of cryospheric landforms within an elevation range from about 500 meters to over 4000 meters above sea level.

Use Cases

• Mapping periglacial landform distribution based on aerial photo interpretation
• Analyzing the relationship between rock glaciers, geology, and climate in the Bernese Alps
• Studying watershed-scale cryospheric inventories for a major European drainage divide
• Comparing glacial and periglacial feature elevations across north-south climatic gradients

Strengths

• Covers a large, contiguous study area of approximately 4200 km²
• Based on a consistent methodology combining aerial photo interpretation and field work
• Documents a specific and temporally bounded period of observation (1992-1994)

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; column names and row counts are unknown
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between platforms (1994 vs. 2026), suggesting potential metadata issues
• The dataset's age means it represents a historical snapshot and may not reflect current conditions

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Interpretation of aerial photographs and field work

Time Range

1992 to 1994

Freshness

1994-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Bernese Alps, western Switzerland, between 46°10'–46°50' N and 7°10'–8°30' E