Classic and new dating methods for assessing the temporal occurrence of mass movements

Establishing landslide chronologies is essential both for understanding cau ses of mass movements as part of fundamental geomorphological research, and for the assessment of landslide hazards as part of applied geomorphology. We discuss the applicability of different methods for determining landslide chronologies, frequencies and dynamics in relation to the type of material being dated, sampling location and type of mass movement. The emphasis is on the possibilities and limitations of the different dating methods. Established methods such as radiocarbon dating, lichenometry and dendrochro nology are briefly discussed. The paper focuses, however, on (1) new analyt ical techniques like Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), Thermally Ionisin g Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) and laser fusion, which have led to significant improvements of established dating methods and on (2) new dating methods Li ke Optically-Stimulated-Luminescence (OSL) dating and Alpha-Recoil-Track (A RT) dating. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. AU rights reserved.