Monitoring Rock Glacier Dynamics in a Mediterranean High-Mountain Environment: Insights from Mount Erciyes, Türkiye

Rock glaciers represent key indicators of permafrost occurrence and climate sensitivity in mountain environments, yet their distribution and dynamics in the Mediterranean region remain poorly constrained. Mount Erciyes (3,917 m a.s.l.), a stratovolcano, is the highest mountain in Central Anatolia. It hosts one of the largest active rock glaciers in the Eastern Mediterranean, offering a rare opportunity to explore periglacial processes in a transitional climatic setting highly sensitive to current warming trends. This contribution presents an ongoing multi-temporal remote sensing investigation of the large rock glacier complex in the Üçker Valley of Mount Erciyes. The study integrates detailed geomorphological mapping with diverse datasets, including historical aerial and satellite imagery, Corona Hexagon photographs, high-resolution Pléiades scenes, and UAV surveys conducted in 2020 and 2023. Structure-from-motion photogrammetry was used to generate high-resolution DEMs and orthophotos, while DEM of Difference (DoD) analysis provides quantitative insights into surface change and volumetric evolution. Thermal imaging further supports the identification of ice-rich sectors and zones of differential activity. Geomorphological mapping highlights a composite landform extending for nearly two kilometers, characterized by multiple lobes with distinct activity states. Active lobes display sharp ridges, steep fronts, and fresh debris surfaces, while distal sectors show smoother morphologies and partial stabilization. The volcanic substrate and inherited glacial morphology strongly influence debris supply and the development of periglacial forms. The integration of UAV-based datasets with historical imagery allows the reconstruction of displacement trends over multi-decadal timescales and the recognition of sectors affected by recent reactivation. Although ski infrastructure and minor anthropic modifications locally influence sediment redistribution, periglacial dynamics remain the dominant geomorphological drivers. By comparing the Erciyes rock glacier with other Mediterranean examples, this study contributes to refining the understanding of isolated permafrost bodies and their response to climate variability. The ongoing analysis aims to provide new insights into the evolution of rock glaciers at the warm edge of their distribution, emphasizing their role as sentinels of environmental change in Mediterranean high-mountain regions.