PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES Permafrost Periglac. Process. 13: 243 – 249 (2002) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ppp.421 Short Communication Long-term Rates of Mass Wasting in Mesters Vig, Northeast Greenland: Notes on a Re-survey Steve Carver, 1 * Naja Mikkelsen 2 and John Woodward 3 1 School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK 2 GEUS, Copenhagen, Denmark 3 British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK ABSTRACT Re-surveys of surviving mass-wasting target lines established by A.L. Washburn in the late 1950s in the Mesters Vig area, northeast Greenland, are used to derive estimates of long-term mass wasting in the area. Rates of 2.9–8.1 cm.yr 1 are calculated for a 2.5–3 ° slope and 1.5–30.4 cm.yr 1 for a gelifluction lobe on a 15 – 23 ° slope. Compared to Washburn’s short-term measurements for the same sites these long-term rates suggest a general increase in the rate of mass wasting in the Mesters Vig area over the last 40 years. This increase may be related to a general pattern of climatic amelioration for the east coast of Greenland. Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: mass wasting; long-term measurement; northeast Greenland INTRODUCTION Re-measurement and observation of target lines, established during the late 1950s by A.L. Washburn, enable long-term rates of mass-wasting processes to be calculated over a period of more than 40 years. Between 1956 and 1961 Washburn and co-workers made observations of mass-wasting rates in the Mesters Vig area of northeast Greenland (72 ° N, 24 ° W). These were part of a larger programme of research into the geomorphology, soils and vegetation of the region (Washburn, 1965, 1967, 1969; Ugolini, 1966a, 1966b; Raup, 1969, 1971). During the period, 1956 to 1961, a series of 24 experimental sites were established (Figure 1). These included target lines, dowel grids, thermocouples and mass-wasting meters. Four sites used lines of target cones placed into the soil to measure down-slope movement rates. Each target line consisted of a series of orange * Correspondence to: Dr S. Carver, School of Geography, Univer- sity of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. painted wooden cones with a height and basal diameter of 10cm, each mounted on either a short (10cm) or long (20cm) grooved wooden peg of 1.5cm diameter (Figure 2A). The target cones were originally placed at 2 m intervals in a straight line, roughly perpendicular to the slope by inserting the peg into the soil until the base of the cone was level with the ground surface (Washburn, 1967). Target cones were individually numbered and target line end points were fixed using a post or cairn, usually on a bedrock base. Down-slope movement of target cones was measured relative to the original target line using a theodolite (Washburn, 1967). Results from these early surveys in the Mesters Vig area indicated mean rates of movement ranging from 0.9 cm.yr 1 in soils subject to dessication to 3.7 cm.yr 1 in soils that remain saturated (Washburn, 1967). Rates of mass wasting of surface soils for Arctic and Alpine environments reported from other parts of the world vary between 0.02 cm.yr 1 (Gamper, 1983) and 12.0 cm.yr 1 (Jahn, 1961) depending on gradient and other controlling factors. Received 26 May 2001 Revised 15 June 2002 Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 11 July 2002