Item: A History of Avalanche Hazard and Avalanche Research in the San Juan Mountains, Southwestern Colorado, USA
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Title: A History of Avalanche Hazard and Avalanche Research in the San Juan Mountains, Southwestern Colorado, USA
Proceedings: Proceedings of the 2006 International Snow Science Workshop, Telluride, Colorado
Authors:
- Richard L. Armstrong [ CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO ]
- Betsy R. Armstrong [ Armstrong Associates, Boulder, CO ]
Date: 2006
Abstract: The San Juan Mountains’ recorded avalanche history began simultaneously with mineral exploration in the 1870s. Development of mines and transportation systems and huge influxes of miners and associated personnel, railroad workers, packers, cooks, etc., placed humans and structures in the paths of avalanches. A century later, in the late 1960s, the Bureau of Reclamation funded an operational winter cloud-seeding program for the San Juan Mountains, bringing renewed attention to avalanche hazard. In response to citizen requests, the Bureau of Reclamation funded an avalanche research project through the University of Colorado Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), known as the San Juan Avalanche Project. This paper summarizes some of the diverse research projects undertaken by the San Juan Avalanche Project from 1971 through 1987. Research included basic observations and data collection of weather, snow cover and avalanche activity along U.S. 550 and Colorado 110; automated avalanche occurrence detection; physical and mechanical properties of snow and specific snow metamorphism studies; conventional and numerical avalanche forecasting; exploring alternative methods of avalanche control; avalanche zoning (path identification, mapping, runout distance and impact pressure estimates) and historical studies to determine locations and frequency of major avalanche occurrences. We describe the process by which this long-running research project was initiated, the key players responsible for both the field operations and the scientific guidance supporting the research, the additional agencies that provided funding for the various research tasks, and selected publications that resulted from this project.
Object ID: issw-2006-298-303.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Unknown
Keywords: avalanche monitoring, forecasting, control, history, zoning, snow metamorphism
Page Number(s): 298-303
Subjects: avalanche hazard avalanche rescue avalanche forecasting
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