Formation ages of a natural dammed lake formed by a large-scale slope failure, and the process in Tsuwano Town, Shimane Prefecture

Wakatsuki, Tsuyoshi*; Yamada, Ryuji*; Kokubu, Yoko   

Many soil slips and debris flows on the welded-tuff slopes were induced by heavy rain on July 28, 2013 in Tsuwano, Shimane. The debris flows eroded sidewalls or streambeds in river channels and the sediments driven by earlier slope movements were exposed in places. In six outcrops, we collected 53 dead wood chip samples presumably buried at the sediment deposition, and radiocarbon dating was performed. At around 418 m asl in Nayoshi district, Tsuwano, the outcrops of the black-clayey sediments are found, which are supposed to have deposited in a past dammed lake. They are distributed at upstream of a topographically-estimated deposit zone for an ancient large-scale slope failure, and the calendar-calibrated ages of these sediments ranges from 41 to 55 ka BP. It is therefore conjectured that the slope failure had occurred before 55 ka BP and the dammed lake had burst after 41 ka BP. An average deposition rate of about 0.3 m/1000 y was estimated at an outcrop of the dammed lake sediments