BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Hydrosphere
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1612208
Groundwater recharge in a steep mountain slope and its implications for slope stability: Åknes rockslide (Norway)
Provisionally accepted
Clara Sena1,2*
Ioannis Papadimitrakis1
Alvar Braathen1Andreas Aspaas3,4Gustav Pless4Anniina Kittilä1Carlos Miraldo Ordens5- 1University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 2Norconsult (Norway), Sandvika, Norway
- 3Njord Centre, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 4Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, Oslo, Norway
- 5The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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The Åknes rockslide lies in a steep mountain slope, dipping on average 30 to 35⁰ towards Sunnylv Fjord, Western Norway. As part of the early-warning system implemented for this rockslide, hydraulic heads have been continuously monitored since 2007. Four multi-level boreholes established in 2017-2018 provided an unprecedent dataset to better understand groundwater recharge in such geological setting. Hydraulic-head timeseries reveal high and opposing trends of up to 3.5 and -6.3 m/year, which could be related to the continuous alteration of the geometry and permeability of the water-carrying fracture network, due to rockmass creeping and widening of tension fractures. Deeper than 80 meters below ground, hydraulic heads change from underpressured conditions in Spring to overpressured conditions in Autumn. The seasonal peak in hydraulic heads, coinciding with overpressured conditions, is a major concern in an eventual acceleration of the rockslide. Water infiltration is favoured in vertical fracture zones and local topographic depressions, such as the backscarp, while the connectivity of the sub-vertical fractures allows infiltrating water to reach the water table at 33 to 78 meters depth, contributing to groundwater recharge. Water is available for infiltration in periods with near frost-and snow-free ground (May to November), with considerably higher amounts of water from May to June due to higher snowmelt rates. These results provide a better understanding of the hydrological regime and recharge processes in a steep mountain slope and their implications for the management of unstable slopes.
Keywords: Seasonality of hydraulic heads, Stratification of hydraulic heads, snowmelt, Vertical fracture zones, Localized groundwater recharge
Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sena, Papadimitrakis, Braathen, Aspaas, Pless, Kittilä and Ordens. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Clara Sena, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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