Rock glaciers are unique and distinct landforms composed partly of ice and partly of rocks that vary in size from boulders to scree. They are neither glaciers nor landslides, but something in between.
(For those who may be interested, the US National Park Service has a fascinating article about the geology of the Pretty Rocks rock glacier in Denali National Park.)
Rock glaciers are typically mapped using the natural=glacier + glacier:type=rock tags as documented in the Wiki. However, some mappers have used natural=rock_glacier or geological=rock_glacier for these features.
Over the past month or so, five changesets converted all the natural=rock_glacier and geological=rock_glacier tags in OSM to natural=moraine or geological=moraine.
A moraine is a very different type of feature composed of glacial till carried and deposited by an icy glacier. I think the retagging may have been a misunderstanding of the difference between the two landforms. But in the process OSM has lost some information about previously mapped rock glaciers.
Should the changes to the tags in these changesets be partially reverted, so that the original natural=rock_glacier and geological=rock_glacier tags are restored?
21 posts - 6 participants
Ce sujet de discussion accompagne la publication sur https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/rock-glaciers-retagged-as-moraines/101589