Detection and reconstruction of rock glacier kinematics over 24 years (2000–2024) from Landsat imagery

Cusicanqui, Diego; Lacroix, Pascal; Bodin, Xavier; Robson, Benjamin Aubrey; Kääb, Andreas; MacDonell, Shelley

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2559-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2559-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2559-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

Research article

|

17 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 17 Jul 2025

Detection and reconstruction of rock glacier kinematics over 24 years (2000–2024) from Landsat imagery

Diego Cusicanqui, Pascal Lacroix, Xavier Bodin, Benjamin Aubrey Robson, Andreas Kääb, and Shelley MacDonell

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2559-2025-supplement

Data sets

Supplementary material of: Detection and reconstruction of rock glacier kinematics over 24 years (2000-2024) from Landsat imagery Diego Cusicanqui https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13119042

USGS Earth Explorer USGS Earth Explorer https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

FLATSIM Data Products ForM@Ter https://doi.org/10.24400/253171/FLATSIM2020

Supplementary material of: Detection and reconstruction of rock glaciers kinematic over 24 years (2000-2024) from Landsat imagery D. Cusicanqui https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13119042

Model code and software

NeoGeographyToolkit/StereoPipeline: 2025-07-14-daily-build (2025-07-14-daily-build) Oleg Alexandrov et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15877053

FLATSIM: The ForM@Ter LArge-Scale Multi-Temporal Sentinel-1 InterferoMetry Service (https://www.poleterresolide.fr/le-service-gdm-sar-in/) F. Thollard et al. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183734

Short summary

This study presents a robust methodological approach to detect and analyse rock glacier kinematics using Landsat 7/Landsat 8 imagery. In the semiarid Andes, 382 landforms were monitored, showing an average velocity of 0.37 ± 0.07 m yr⁻¹ over 24 years, with rock glaciers moving 23 % faster. Results demonstrate the feasibility of using medium-resolution optical imagery, combined with radar interferometry, to monitor rock glacier kinematics with widely available satellite datasets.