International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings - Montana State University Library

Item: Ice/snow avalanches from the hanging snout of the Palòn de la Mare glacier (Central Italian Alps)

• • Title: Ice/snow avalanches from the hanging snout of the Palòn de la Mare glacier (Central Italian Alps)

    Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings 2018, Innsbruck, Austria

    Authors:

    • Margherita Maggioni  [ DISAFA, University of Torino, Italy ]  [ Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo - SGL, ITALY ]
    • Giuseppe Cola  [ Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo - SGL, ITALY ]
    • Riccardo Scotti  [ Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo - SGL, ITALY ]  [ BiGeA, University of Bologna, ITALY ]
    • Michele Freppaz  [ DISAFA, University of Torino, Italy ]
    • Fabiano Monti  [ Alpsolut S.r.l., Livigno (SO), ITALY ]

    Date: 2018-10-07

    Abstract: In latter years, because of the climate change and the related transition from cold to warm based ice in high elevation glaciers, avalanches due to the collapses of hanging glaciers have raised importance and interest. In this work, we present the case study of Palòn de la Mare, a mountain glacier with a secondary hanging snout, which frequently breaks off producing ice and mixed ice/snow avalanches. We analysed the evolution of this portion of the glacier in the last 30 years also with respect to its mass balance and snow and weather data. Among the recorded nine glacier collapses, we gave a special focus on 5 avalanche events: three pure ice avalanches in 1999, 2002, 2006 and two mixed ice/snow avalanches in 1986 and 2017. For reproducing the ice/snow avalanche events, we used the model RAMMS-Extended. This model allows the simulation of an avalanche from the release to the runout by taking into account: i) potential secondary releases; ii) snow entrainment; iii) snow temperature and density variations along the path. The model simulated the flow dynamics of the events and highlighted the importance of the choice of the release inputs, with particular focus on the ice release temperatures which greatly influenced the runout distances. In this paper we partly present the results and discuss the potentiality of such model, originally born for snow avalanches, in a glaciological context.

    Object ID: ISSW2018_P01.10.pdf

    Language of Article: English

    Presenter(s):

    Keywords: hanging glacier, ice/snow avalanches, dynamical modeling, ice temperature.

    Page Number(s): 61-65

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