Geomorphology 41 2001.

309322
www.elsevier.comrlocatergeomorph

Columbia Mountain landslide: late-glacial emplacement and

indications of future failure, Northwestern Montana, USA
Larry N. Smith )
Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Montana Tech of The Uniersity of Montana, Butte, MT 59701-8997, USA
Received 7 November 2000; received in revised form 2 March 2001; accepted 9 March 2001

Abstract
The well preserved and undissected Columbia Mountain landslide, which is undergoing suburban development, was
studied to estimate the timing and processes of emplacement. The landslide moved westward from a bedrock interfluve of
the northern Swan Range in Montana, USA onto the deglaciated floor of the Flathead Valley. The landslide covers an area
of about 2 km2 , has a toe-to-crown height of 1100 m, a total length of 3430 m, a thickness of between 3 and 75 m, and an
approximate volume of 40 million m3. Deposits and landforms define three portions of the landslide; from the toe to the
head they are: i. clast-rich diamictons made up of gravel-sized angular rock fragments with arcuate transverse ridges at the
surface; ii. silty and sandy deposits resting on diamictons in an internally drained depression behind the ridges; and iii.
diamictons containing angular and subangular pebble-to block-sized clasts some of which are glacially striated. in an area
of lumpy topography between the depression and the head of the landslide. Drilling data suggest the diamictons cover
block-to-slab-sized bedrock clasts that resulted from an initial stage of the failure.
The landslide moved along a surface that developed at a high angle to the NE-dipping, thinly bedded metasediments of
the Proterozoic Belt Supergroup. The exposed slope of the main scarp dips 30378W. A hypothetical initial rotational failure
of the lower part of a bedrock interfluve may have transported bedrock clasts into the valley. The morphology and deposits
at the surface of the landslide indicate deposition by a rock avalanche sturzstrom. derived from a second stage of failure
along the upper part of the scarp.
The toe of the Columbia Mountain landslide is convex-west in planview, except where it was deflected around areas now
occupied by glacial kettles on the north and south margins. Landsliding, therefore, occurred during deglaciation of the valley
while ice still filled the present-day kettles. Available chronostratigraphy suggests that the ; 1-km thick glacier in the region
melted before 12,000 14C years BPwithin 3000 years of the last glacial maximum. Deglaciation and hillslope failure are
likely causally linked. Failure of the faceted interfluve was likely due tensile fracturing of bedrock along a bedding-normal
joint set shortly after glacial retreat from the hillslope.
Open surficial tension fractures and grabens in the Swan Range are limited to an area above the crown of the landslide.
Movement across these features suggests that extensional flow of bedrock sackung. is occurring in what remains of the
ridge that failed in the Columbia Mountain landslide. The fractures and grabens likely were initiated during failure, but their
morphologies suggest active extension across some grabens. Continued movement of bedrock above the crown may result in
future mass movements from above the previous landslide scarp. Landslides sourced from bedrock above the scarp of the

Tel.: q1-406-496-4379; fax: q1-406-496-4343.

E-mail address: lsmith@mtech.edu L.N. Smith..

0169-555Xr01r$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 9 - 5 5 5 X 0 1 . 0 0 0 6 2 - 9

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

late-glacial Columbia Mountain landslide, which could potentially be triggered by earthquakes, are geologic hazards in the
region. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Deglaciation; Landslide; Sackung; Geologic hazards; Northern rocky mountains

1. Introduction
Mass movement of bedrock and surficial sediments immediately after retreat of valley glaciers is a
recognized paraglacial landscape process that occurs
in response to deglaciation Shroder, 1998.. Studies
of landslides along glaciated valley walls have docu-

Fig. 1. Location of study area in NW USA. Enlarged map shows

southern limit of late-glacial ice modified from USDA Forest
Service, 1998., location of the Rocky Mountain trench, part of the
continental divide, and major modern rivers. Pleistocene glacial
ice is shown in a stipple pattern; flow directions of glaciers are
shown by double arrowheads. SR sSwan Range, WR sWhitefish
Range, TMs Teakettle Mountain. Range outlines are not meant
to show extent of glaciation in those areas.

mented a range of forms and processes of failures

ranging from deep-seated, bedrock failures Augustinus, 1995a. to surficial slumping and falls of sediment Owen and Sharma, 1998; Watanabe et al.,
1998.. Understanding of timing and processes of
valley wall failures after deglaciation, and the possibility of landslide reactivation, is important for assessing local and regional landslide hazards in
deglaciated mountain regions. Examples of bedrockinvolved landslides where the timing of the event
can be shown to follow deglaciation directly have
rarely been reported. Except for cases in a few
well-studied areas e.g., Panizza et al., 1996; Berrisford and Matthews, 1997; Matthews et al., 1997;
Soldati, 1999., most examples lack direct evidence
for timing; usually, the dating of emplacement is
poorly constrained Whalley et al., 1983; Dawson et
al., 1986; Owen et al., 1995; Hewitt, 1998, 1999..
Documented modern-day risks associated with continued movement or reactivation of landslides that
occurred during late Pleistocene deglaciation have
been described from only a few areas Pellegrini and
Surian, 1996..
One such paraglacial landslide has been mapped
along the western front of the northern Swan Range,
northwestern Montana, USA Fig. 1; Harrison et al.,
1992; Smith, 2000a.. The landslide is readily recognized on aerial photographs, topographic maps with
20-ft 6.1-m. contours, and in the field Figs. 2 and
3.. Documentation of the timing of emplacement, the
possible triggering mechanisms, and the indications
for continued movement of bedrock masses in the
area are the main purposes of this paper.

2. Geologic setting
The study area is in the Swan Range along the
eastern side of the nearly flat-floored Flathead Valley, north of Flathead Lake in the northern Rocky
Mountain region of North America Fig. 1.. The
range trends northsouth for a distance of 12 km in

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

311

Fig. 2. Stereo vertical aerial photographs of the landslide and tension fractures flight GS-CJ, 11 September 1946.; crest of Swan Range is in
upper part of photographs. Note that north is to left.

the area, forming the east side of the Rocky Mountain trench, a linear extensional basin that continues
NW into Canada. The west-facing flank of the range
exhibits 1250 m of relief over a horizontal distance
of 2.5 km from the valley to the crest of the range.
The Swan Range is an east-dipping fault block of
middle Proterozoic greenschist-facies metasedimentary rocks of the Belt Supergroup. The Grinnell and
Empire Formations sensu Winston, 1986. crop out
immediately upslope of the landslide Fig. 3.. Dominant lithologies in both formations are argillite, siltstone, and a few beds of quartzite and limestone
Johns, 1970; Harrison et al., 1992.. Most bedding
ranges in thickness from millimeter-scale laminations of argillite to centimeter and decimeter beds of
quartzite and limestone. Locally, the Grinnell Formation contains gray and red, siliceous and calcareous
argillite with a few beds of feldspathic quartzite,
whereas the Empire Formation is more greenish gray
and contains a few thin limestone beds and an
increasing amount of calcareous argillite upsection.

The contact between the units is transitional Johns,

1970.. The crest of the range is underlain by the
Helena Formation Fig. 3., which contains more
limestone and dolomite than the subjacent units but
has similar bed thicknesses. Compressional tectonism created locally intense penetrative cleavage and
small-scale folds and thrusts Johns, 1970.. The thin
bedding and crosscutting fractures lead to disaggregation of the bedrock units into talus clasts mostly of
a few centimeters to a few decimeters in size. Bedding strikes N 30408W and dips 35578NE, making the west-facing flank of the range nearly perpendicular to bedding.
The Rocky Mountain trench and intermontane
valleys north of Flathead Lake were nearly filled by
the Flathead Lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet during
late Pleistocene glaciation Richmond, 1986; Locke,
1995.. Glacial ice flowed SW out of mountains north
of the Swan Range over Teakettle Mountain Fig. 1.
and merged with the Flathead Lobe that flowed SE
down the trench from central British Columbia and

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

Fig. 3. Simplified geologic map showing locations of cross-secX

X
X
tions AA , BB , and CC . of Fig. 4 and photographs A, B,
and C. of Fig. 9. Traces of tension fractures are shown as solid
lines where sparsely vegetated group upslope of the crown. and
as dashed lines where vegetated group south and west of crown..
The locations of water wells that are greater than 35 m deep are
shown by circles. Solid circles denote wells that penetrated bedrock
or large bedrock clasts in the lower portions of the well. An area
where AbedrockB appears to be at anomalously shallow depths is
outlined see text for discussion.. Qlss landslide deposits; Qt s
till; Qgls glaciolacustrine and outwash deposits; Qaf salluvial
fan deposits; base is from Columbia Falls South 20-ft contours.
and Doris Mountain 40-ft contours. 7 1r2-min topographic
maps. Note that north is to left.

with ice from the Whitefish Range Fig. 1.. The

resulting ice mass impinged against the northern part
of the Swan Range and flowed southward. The
northern Swan Range contains glacial aretes,
horns,

and cirques on its east and west flanks. Glacier

headwalls extend to the narrow crest of the range.
Valley glaciers were smaller on the steeper and
narrower west-facing flank, with most of the range
subjected to south-directed glacial flow by the Flathead Lobe. The crest is typically less than 100 m in
width except in a few low relief areas like that at
Columbia Mountain Fig. 3., suggesting that glacial
erosion extended nearly to the range crest. Except
along glacier-margin stream channels, erosion on
steep slopes and weathering of the thinly bedded
bedrock have obscured glacial trimlines, striations,
and erratics in the immediate area of the landslide.
During the regions last glacial maximum at
12,70015,300 14 C years BP Carrara et al., 1996.,
ice thicknesses exceeded 1 km in some valleys.
Deglaciation of a cirque near the continental divide
east of the Swan Range had occurred before about
12,200 14 C years BP Carrara, 1995.. Glaciolacustrine sediments overlie till throughout the valley. By
the time the Glacier Peak tephra was deposited in the
valley at 11,200 14 C years BP, the Flathead Valley
was ice-free, the glacial lake had receded, and eolian
dune fields were active Smith, 2000a..
Although the Swan Range front is nearly linear
and has steep interfluves with faceted spurs suggesting recent faulting, neotectonism is enigmatic. Glacial
erosion and deposition along the west-facing flank
obscure evidence of range-front faulting. Few seismic events above magnitude 4 have been recorded
near the northern Swan Range in about 20 years of
monitoring, and no Holocene movement on the
range-front fault has been documented Stickney,
2000.. Like other areas in the intermountain seismic
belt of Montana, range-front faulting of the Swan
Range appears to have a long recurrence interval.
Footslopes locally exceed 508 on longitudinal topographic profiles of interfluves along the west flank
of the Swan Range near the Columbia Mountain
landslide Fig. 4.. Most of the interfluves have steep
lower segments and convex-up profiles. The longitudinal profiles are similar to glaciated slopes on thinly
bedded and jointed bedrock in other areas
Augustinus, 1995b.. The landslide itself has a profile that is generally concave-up or planar and attains
a slope of 378. The steep facets have been attributed
to range-front faulting Konizeski et al., 1968.. However, a lack of evidence for offset Pleistocene or

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

313

X
X
X
Fig. 4. Hillslope profiles of landslide BB . and drainage interfluves north AA . and south CC . of the landslide. Vertical scale applies
to profile B; locations and bedrock contacts shown on Fig. 3.

Holocene deposits and glacial striations on the

bedrock surfaces show the features were either
formed Davis, 1920. or overridden by glacial ice.

3. Landslide form and deposits

3.1. Description
The Columbia Mountain landslide covers an area
of about 2 km2 , has a height from toe to crown of
1100 m, and a total length of 3430 m. The landslide
surface is entirely covered by crops, grassland, Douglas fir forest, or housing developments. Descriptions of deposit lithologies are derived from a few
roadcuts and 20 descriptive logs of water wells that
penetrated the landslide deposits and subjacent sediments. Thicknesses of the landslide interpreted from
well logs are mostly between 3 and 30 m. However,
the thickness exceeds 75 m in an area where block-to
slab-sized clasts terminology of Blair and McPherson, 1999. of Belt Supergroup bedrock are inter-

preted to rest on glacial deposits, as described below

Fig. 5.. Volumetric calculations using thicknesses
from well logs and relief from 1:24,000-scale topographic maps suggest an approximate volume of 40
million m3 for the landslide, however, the thicknesses and lateral extent of large bedrock clasts are
poorly constrained.
The landslide scarp has an upper portion shaped
like an inverted AvB with inward-facing slopes along
its flanks that meet at the crown near the contact
between the Grinnell and Empire Formations. The
lower part of the scarp broadens and steepens at
mid-slope on the mountainside Figs. 2 and 3..
Landforms and near-surface deposits define three
subunits in the depositional portion of the landslide
Fig. 5.. From the toe to the head, the units are i. a
semicircular area where diamictons containing cobble and boulder-sized angular rock fragments have a
series of convex-west transverse ridges at the surface, ii. a flat area behind the transverse ridges
where up to 10 m of sandy silt accumulated above
diamictons in an internally drained depression, and

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

Fig. 5. A. Vertically exaggerated profile of landslide showing lithologies and thicknesses of sediments interpreted from 15 descriptive logs
of water wells. The base of the bedrock clasts is not known and is shown by a question mark. B. Cross-section at true scale.

iii. an area of lumpy topography underlain by diamictons between the depression and the head of the
landslide. The toe of the landslide is convex-west in
planview, except at indentations on the north and
south lateral sides, around areas now occupied by
ponds. The arcuate toe forms a distinct distal rim that
is 36 m above nearby land. The series of transverse
ridges that parallel the toe of the landslide partly
wrap around the westernmost indentations into the
toe of the landslide Figs. 2 and 3.. Topography
behind the westernmost transverse ridges slopes
downward toward the mountain front and the flat,
internally drained depression. Relief between the
transverse ridges and the depression is about 5 m.

The area of lumpy topography upslope of the

depression is made up of small hills and depressions
with 520 m of local relief. Deposits near the surface are diamictons composed of fine cobble-through
very coarse boulder-sized, angular to subrounded
clasts of dolomitic argillite and minor quartzite in a
matrix of sandy silt. A few of the observed clasts
were glacially striated. Well-log data show diamicton
thicknesses of at least 30 m. Three water wells in an
area about 300 m on a side were completed below
the diamictons in more than 10 m of fractured
bedrock at depths ranging from 27 to 65 m Fig. 3..
These depths are anomalously shallow for depth to
Belt Supergroup bedrock on the hanging wall of the

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

315

range-bounding fault that separates the valley from

the northern Swan Range. For instance, bedrock was
not penetrated in wells 200 m north or 800 m south
of this location. An interpretation more consistent
with regional thickness of valley-fill sediment is that
the three wells partially penetrated one or more
bedrock clasts that were transported along a scoopshaped landslide failure plane. The distribution and
size of these inferred bedrock clasts beneath the
surficial diamicton are poorly understood due to
sparse drill-hole data. The bedrock clasts are interpreted to have been buried by landslide diamicton
Fig. 5a.. Additional drilling or geophysical data are
needed to confirm this interpretation.
The landslide deposits rest on sandy silt, silt and
clay, and silty diamicton deposits associated with
proglacial lacustrine deposits and till and other subglacial deposits Smith, 2000b.. The distal rock
avalanche portion of the landslide essentially appears
to overlie glaciolacustrine silt and clay conformably
Fig. 5..
3.2. Interpretation
3.2.1. Processes
The form and deposits of the Columbia Mountain
landslide suggest a two-stage failure of a bedrock
interfluve in the western flank of the Swan Range,
shortly after deglaciation of the Flathead Valley. The
first stage of failure involved a rotational emplacement of the block-to slab-sized clasts of bedrock in
the subsurface, and the second stage was deposition
of a rock avalanche, or sturzstrom, onto the valley
floor.
Comparison of longitudinal profiles of bedrock
spurs near to the landslide suggest possible dimensions of the spur that failed. Because most interfluves on the west flank of the northern Swan Range
have steep lower slopes and smooth upper slopes,
approximating the form of the failed interfluve by
connecting topographic contours across the scarp is
reasonable Fig. 6..
The landslide was derived from a failure that cut
at a high angle across bedding in the Grinnell Formation of the Belt Supergroup. The failure plane is
likely to have developed along a joint set that strikes
NW and dips perpendicularly to bedding, at 45

Fig. 6. Hypothetical reconstructed contours of bedrock interfluve

that failed; 200-ft 61-m. contour interval for reconstructed hillslope.

558SW Fig. 7.. The crown of the landslide is near

the contact between the Grinnell and Empire Formations Figs. 3 and 4.. A greater percentage of argillite
and less carbonate in the Grinnell may cause the unit
to be weaker and more thinly bedded than the Empire, which could have contributed to the crowns
position at the contact Fig. 4..
If the interpretation of the allochthonous nature of
bedrock clasts at the basal of part of the landslide is
correct, the clasts represent the first stage of movement where bedrock rotated along a failure surface

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

Fig. 7. Lower-hemisphere, equal-area, stereonet projections of

structural features in the immediate area of the landslide. Bedding
orientations are shown as great circles, fracture orientations are
shown by poles to the planes. A. Data from bedrock exposures
north of scarp, B. data from fractures in grabens above of scarp.

that propagated into valley-fill deposits. The crown

of this rotational rupture surface is suspected to have
been near or below where the scarp steepens at an

elevation of about 4900 ft 1490 m. Figs. 3 and 8..

Failure of the lower part of the interfluve and emplacement of the bedrock clasts would have caused
the landslide to entrain valley-fill sediments with
bedrock and till material derived from upslope. This
possible initial failure of the lower part of the interfluve would have removed support for the rock mass
within the upper portion of the scarp.
The second stage of movement is represented by
the diamicton that extends about 1.5 km into the
valley Fig. 3.. The abrupt convex toe, series of
transverse ridges, internally drained center, and dimensions of the landslide suggest extremely rapid
deposition by a rock avalanche sturzstrom. Hsu,

1975; Nicoletti and Sorriso-Valvo, 1991; Cruden and

Varnes, 1996.. The form of the toe, transverse ridges,
and the landslides topographically low center are
evidence for outward flow during deposition of the
landslide cf. Hsu,
1975.. The valley surface is essentially horizontal, suggesting that flow took place
over a short time immediately following failure, as
the diamicton deformed plastically before it came to
rest cf. Schuster et al., 1995.. The dimensions of the
landslide are similar to the less mobile sturzstroms of
Hsu 1975.. Whether or not the first stage rotational
failure of the hypothesized lower slope occurred,
failure along the upper scarp between about 4900 ft
1490 m. and the crown was likely responsible for
the rock avalanche portion of the landslide. The
detached rock mass and any overlying till possibly
became airborne where the scarp steepens at midslope, resulting in a 5001000 m slide and fall onto
the valley surface. The second stage of the failure
most likely occurred immediately after the first stage.
Avalanching rock debris is interpreted to have entrained some glaciolacustrine sediments, previously
excavated valley-fill deposits, and bedrock clasts
associated with the first stage of failure.
Silty sand deposited in the internally drained depression on top of the landslide diamicton is interpreted to be lacustrine based on its similarity to
laminated sand, silt, and clay throughout the upper
Flathead Valley Smith, 2000a.. The glaciolacustrine
silt below the landslide shows that the landslide fell
into a proglacial lake basin. The lacustrine silt in the
depression on top of the diamicton can be explained
either by deposition in the proglacial lake the landslide was, thus, partly subaqueous. or that the

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

317

X
X
Fig. 8. Hypothetical reconstructed topographic profile of failed interfluve along BB Fig. 6., modern profile BB in Fig. 4., and possible
position of initial failure surface dashed line.. The lower portion of the failed interfluve is interpreted to first have moved along a curved
plane into the valley; the upper portion failed second, producing the rock avalanche.

proglacial lake had receded and a separate lake

formed on the landslide after emplacement. Distributions of glaciolacustrine sediments throughout the
valley Smith, 2000a. suggest a proglacial lake may
have been 530-m-deep near the landslide.

that the hillslope failed shortly following deglaciation of the immediate area.

3.2.2. Timing
Ponds immediately north and south of the rock
avalanche Figs. 2 and 3. are two in a series of
depressions interpreted as glacial kettles, or possibly
pingo-remnants. The fact that the rock avalanche did
not fill the depressions suggests that these areas were
ice filled and topographically higher than their surroundings at the time of landslide emplacement. The
orientations of the transverse ridges show that the
landslide flowed around the previously higher areas
on either side of the deposit. Ice blocks in the kettle
areas could have been either grounded in the bottom
of a glacial lake or stood higher than outwash in the
surrounding area. The possibility that the landslide
fell entirely onto glacial ice and was then lowered
onto the valley during downwasting is inconsistent
with the interpretation of a rotational emplacement in
the first stage of failure and the excellent preservation of the toe and the transverse ridges on the rock
avalanche. The close association of the Columbia
Mountain landslide with isolated ice blocks shows

Steep faceted, glacially modified footslopes characterize each of the convex-up bedrock spurs on the
western flank of the northern Swan Range Fig. 4..
Possible factors that contributed to instability of the
failed spur include glacial undercutting, reduction in
valley-wall support and dilation of fractures parallel
to the hillside upon deglaciation Panizza, 1973., and
seismicity associated with tectonism or isostatic adjustments in the area cf. Ballantyne, 1997.. Catastrophic failure of bedrock hillslopes immediately after deglaciation of mountainous areas has been
proposed or proven for other areas Whalley et al.,
1983; Dawson et al., 1986; Owen et al., 1995;
Matthews et al., 1997; Panizza et al., 1996, 1997;
Soldati, 1999., but conclusive evidence for the actual
timing of the events in many areas is uncommon c.f.
Hewitt, 1999.. The Columbia Mountain landslide is
one such example where the triggering of the landslide can be related to deglaciation. The lack of
evidence of surface faulting of glacial sediments that
are, in turn, overlain by the landslide suggests that

4. Possible triggering mechanisms

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

reduction of lateral support of an oversteepened hillside was the most likely triggering mechanism. Studies of slope stability along bedrock faces that were
recently deglaciated show that whatever the actual
triggering mechanism, slopes equilibrate quickly to a
changed stress environment Augustinus, 1995a,b..

5. Indications of continued movement of bedrock

5.1. Description
Upslope from the crown of the latest Pleistocene
Columbia Mountain landslide, several grabens, ten-

Fig. 9. Photographs of sparsely vegetated grabens. A. Looking NE at a relatively large graben with colluvial fill located at AAB in Fig. 3.;
vertical bedrock walls trend N 65758E; dogs at arrows. for scale are about 50 cm tall. B. Looking east in the direction of bedrock dip
from ABB in Fig. 3.; bedding is offset in a left-lateral sense across vertical fractures trending N 378E. C. Looking east at a small graben
with little colluvial fill; soil horizons were in vertical exposures beneath grass on right; orientation of graben is shown by line with double
arrowheads; bedding is offset in a left-oblique direction with 61 cm of horizontal separation along fractures that appear to sole into a joint
surface that dips toward the viewer and comes to the surface near the trees in the distance approximate location shown by strike and dip
symbol on a projected plane..

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

sion fractures, and sparsely vegetated scarps occur

along the upper part of the remnant of the failed
bedrock spur Figs. 2 and 3.. Additionally, more
subtle, vegetated grabens and scarps occur from
south of the crown to 1 km down the SE flank of the
spur. Most of the larger grabens with sparsely vegetated scarps are NESW-trending, left-stepping, and
en echelon in pattern; and they range from 100 to
400 m in length and between 3 and 15 m in depth
Figs. 2 and 9.. Although the depth and width of
most grabens are difficult to measure because of
colluviation, where bedding surfaces can be matched
across some smaller grabens, horizontal separations
of 6080 cm have been measured Figs. 9b,c.. The
group of grabens trends parallel to an interfluvial
ridge from the crown of the Columbia Mountain
landslide to the crest of the Swan Range Fig. 2..

319

Some smaller grabens at or within ; 10 m of the

range crest appear to sole into down-slope dipping
fractures that are perpendicular to bedding Fig. 9c..
The grabens are defined by steeply NW-and SEdipping fractures that generally are normal to bedding and parallel to the remains of the interfluvial
ridge that failed during the late-glacial landslide Fig.
7b.. The fractures and grabens are similar to extensional structures related to rock flow sackung. and
landsliding in other mountainous areas Savage and
Varnes, 1987; Varnes et al., 1989; Bovis, 1990;
Dramis and Sorriso-Valvo, 1994, McCalpin and
Irvine, 1995; Bisci et al., 1996.. However, in the
northern Swan Range, these tension fractures and
grabens have only been recognized along an interfluve in the area near the crown of the Columbia
Mountain landslide.

Fig. 10. A. Map showing inferred distribution of actively extending rock mass shown by dotted line at AAB above the previous scarp.
Attitudes of prominant joints that strike nearly parallel to bedding but dip in the opposite direction are shown. B. NWSE oriented
cross-section showing inferred movement direction of rock down the 308 slope.

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L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

5.2. Interpretation
The distribution and orientation of the tension
fractures and grabens suggest NW-directed gravitational spreading of bedrock in a discrete area NE of
the crown of the late-glacial Columbia Mountain
landslide. The open network of brecciated boulders
filling the bases of some grabens and vertical exposures of bedrock, colluvium, and rooted soil horizons
on the sides of the grabens suggests that extension is
active across the features between the crown of the
late-glacial landslide and the mountain crest Figs. 3
and 9b,c.. The vegetated grabens that extend downslope below the crown show lower relief due to
significant colluvial filling Fig. 3., and may be less
active than the upper grabens.
Like bedrock extensional features in other landslide areas Chigira and Kiho, 1994; Dramis and
Sorriso-Valvo, 1994., these features likely were initiated by unloading of the hillside during or sometime
after movement of the Columbia Mountain landslide.
Unloading of the NW portion of the bedrock spur is
presumed to have allowed WNW extension of the
remnant to occur.
If all of the fractures above the crown of the
previous landslide sole into a single zone of detachment or failure plane, like those described by Bovis
1990., Chigira and Kiho 1994., Bovis and Evans
1995., and Sorriso-Valvo et al. 1999., the plane
would extend from the crest of the Swan Range
down unnamed drainages north and south of the
late-glacial landslide Fig. 10.. Evidence for an active failure plane emerging on the hillside NW of the
fractures and grabens would be water seepage, topographic bulging, or production of debris Varnes et
al., 1989; Bovis, 1990; McCalpin and Irvine, 1995..
Local steepening of the hillslope NW of the fractures
and grabens may be due to topographic bulging and
flow downslope Fig. 10b. but the data are not
conclusive. Assuming a NW-dipping, concave single
failure surface as much as 110 m below land surface,
the rock volume is about 33 million m3. A more
likely scenario for future failure is that multiple
failure planes follow the NWSE striking, SWdipping joint surfaces that are normal to bedding.
These surfaces may define smaller bodies of rock
that could fail independently. Multiple active talus
slopes and toppling bedrock clasts suggest intermit-

tent, small-scale failures are occurring near the top of

the mountain.
Exposed soil profiles and openwork accumulations of colluvium in grabens, and left-stepping en
echelon grabens with left separation are consistent
with extremely slow to very slow NW-directed
movement of the rock mass above the crown of the
late-glacial Columbia Mountain landslide Fig. 10..
Deformation of the rock mass could possibly change
to an accelerated phase resulting in catastrophic collapse cf. Evans, 1987; Chigira and Kiho, 1994;
Dramis and Sorriso-Valvo, 1994; Bovis and Evans,
1995; Bisci et al., 1996.. Strong shaking, such as that
associated with a seismic event on or near the Swan
Range-bounding fault, could trigger such a collapse.
Where ground-rupturing earthquakes in NW Montana have occurred they have recurrence intervals of
roughly 48 ka Ostenaa et al., 1995.. The sparse
data on paleoseismicity and lack of evidence for
Holocene displacement on the Swan Range front are
consistent with the long time elapsed since catastrophic failure in the Columbia Mountain landslide
area. Further investigation of current movement
across, and the colluvial fill of, grabens above the
landslide is needed to assess rates of movement, and
the dimensions and probability of future catastrophic
failure.

6. Conclusions and implications

The Columbia Mountain landslide is the only
recognized major landslide in the upper Flathead
Valley. The landslide contains deposits related to an
initial rotational bedrock failure of the lower part of
the bedrock spur that led to a reduction of support of
the upper part of the spur. Rock that fell or slid from
the upper part of the scarp traveled a vertical distance of 5001100 m, producing a rock avalanche
that reached 3450 m from the crown. Morphologic
evidence shows that the rock avalanche traveled
around isolated blocks of glacial ice that occupied
present-day kettles. The landslide is presumed to
have been initiated by glacial undercutting of a
bedrock spur and dilation of bedding-normal joints
by unloading of the valley wall during glacial withdrawal. Available dates on deglaciation suggest that
ice had withdrawn from the area between 12,000 and

L.N. Smith r Geomorphology 41 (2001) 309322

15,000 14 C years BP; the landslide apparently last

moved at or before 12,000 14 C years BP.
Extension of the remnant bedrock interfluve by
gravitational spreading produced fractures and
grabens along the SE-facing flank of a remaining
part of the bedrock spur that failed in the landslide.
Morphologic evidence suggests bedrock above the
crown of the Columbia Mountain landslide is moving downslope toward the NW along joint surfaces
that act as failure planes. The deepest and least
vegetated grabens in the area trend NE from near the
crown of the previous landslide to the crest of
Columbia Mountain, defining the SE boundary of an
actively extending bedrock mass. This potential
source for a future landslide is about 1250 m vertically above and 2000 m horizontally away from an
area of residential development.
Reactivation of landslides initiated during landscape adjustment contemporaneous with or closely
following deglaciation such as the late-glacial
Columbia Mountain landslide. clearly poses less risk
to populations than more recent mass movements
Pellegrini and Surian, 1996.. However, where extensional features can be spatially related to previous
landslides and shown to be active, further investigation of the geologic hazards is warranted.
Residential development is preferentially occurring on the Columbia Mountain landslide deposits
instead of neighboring hillsides because the lowerangle slopes on the landslide provide flatter building
sites Figs. 3 and 4.. The lack of evidence for
catastrophic movements in the area during the last
12,000 years suggests that the hazard of a future
landslide may only be slight. If a significant seismic
event should occur in the area, however, failure of
the bedrock mass near the crest of the Swan Range is
possible.

Acknowledgements
Support of this work was provided by the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology and the Montana
Ground-Water Assessment Program. Reviews by Drs.
Mauro Soldati, Richard A. Marston, and an anonymous reviewer helped to correct terminology and
highlight omissions, and were greatly appreciated.
Additional reviews by R.N. Bergantino, E.G. Deal,

321

M.C. Stickney, W.A. Van Voast, and P.A. Hargrave

of various versions of the manuscript improved its
clarity and content.
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