Morphometry and Late Holocene activity of solifluction landforms in the Sierra Nevada, southern Spain

Numerous solifluction landforms in two valleys of the western part of the Sierra Nevada range in the southern Iberian Peninsula were classified according to morphology and used to reconstruct solifluction activity for the Late Holocene. Lobes are almost inactive under the current semiarid climate and water availability appears to be the crucial control on activity within the high‐elevation study areas. The presence of numerous inactive solifluction lobes suggests that past climate conditions must have been more favourable for lobe development. Chronostratigraphic profiles of several lobes indicate that colder and/or wetter periods (e.g. the Little Ice Age) tend to promote slope movements, with sparser vegetation cover and higher solifluction rates whereas a denser vegetation cover spreads across valley floors and soils develop during warmer periods (e.g. the Medieval Warm Period). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.