Advances in ice avalanches on the Tibetan Plateau

As some of the greatest natural disasters in the cryosphere,ice avalanches(IAs)seriously threaten lives and cause catastrophic damage to the resource environment,but a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge on IAs remains lacking.We summarized 63 IAs on the Tibetan Plateau(TP)since the 20th century,of which,over 20 IAs occurred after the 21st century.The distributions of IAs are mainly concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern TP,and the occurrence time of IAs is mostly concentrated from July to September.We highlight recent advances in mechanical properties and genetic mechanisms of IAs and emphasize that temperature,rainfall,and seismicity are the inducing factors.The failure modes of IAs are summarized into 6 categories by examples:slip pulling type,slip toppling type,slip breaking type,water level collapse type,cave roof collapse type,and wedge failure type.Finally,we deliver recommendations concerning the risk assessment and prediction of IAs.The results provide important scientific value for addressing climate change and resisting glacier-related hazards.

Characteristics and dynamic analysis of the February 2021 long-runout disaster chain triggered by massive rock and ice avalanche at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya

A massive rock and ice avalanche occurred on the western slope of the Ronti Gad valley in the northern part of Chamoli,Indian Himalaya,on 7 February 7,2021.The avalanche on the high mountain slope at an elevation of 5600 m above sea level triggered a long runout disaster chain,including rock mass avalanche,debris avalanche,and flood.The disaster chain had a horizontal travel distance of larger than 17,600 m and an elevation difference of 4300 m.In this study,the disaster characteristics and dynamic process were analyzed by multitemporal satellite imagery.The results show that the massive rock and ice avalanche was caused by four large expanding discontinuity planes.The disaster chain was divided into five zones by satellite images and field observation,including source zone,transition zone,dynamic entrainment zone,flow deposition zone,and flood zone.The entrainment effect and melting water were recognized as the main causes of the long-runout distance.Based on the seismic wave records and field videos,the time progress of the disaster was analyzed and the velocity of frontal debris at different stages was calculated.The total analyzed disaster duration was 1247 s,and the frontal debris velocity colliding with the second hydropower station was approximately 23 m/s.This study also carried out the numerical simulation of the disaster by rapid mass movement simulation(RAMMS).The numerical results reproduced the dynamic process of the debris avalanche,and the mechanism of long-runout avalanche was further verified by parametric study.Furthermore,this study discussed the potential causes of disaster and flood and the roles of satellite images and seismic networks in the monitoring and early-warning.

Stability of the Hailuogou glacier during the“9.5”Luding Earthquake:a preliminary assessment based on multi-source observations

On 5th September 2022,a magnitude Ms-6.8 earthquake occurred nearby Mt.Gongga,western Sichuan.The stability of the glaciers in east Mt.Gongga close to the epicenter was widely concerned due to the strong shake triggered by the earthquake.Using multi-source observations(including in-situ photographs,remote sensing datasets before and after the event),we carried out a preliminary assessment of the stability and hazard risks of the Hailuogou(HLG)glacier.Triggered by the earthquake,a small block of fractured ice at the lowest part of icefall collapsed.The magnitude of the coseismic ice avalanche was relatively small,which is comparable in size to most ice avalanches over the past seven years,but much less than the previous mapped largest one(03 April 2018,runout~699 m).One most recent large(runout~608 m)ice avalanche occurred between 01 and 04 September,just before the earthquake,likely unloaded large amount of ice mass and made a larger ice avalanche avoided during the earthquake shake.Nevertheless,the momentum of collapsed snow-icerock mass could be safely unloaded over a wide and gentler-slope ice tongue area,limiting its mobility and the risk of a cascading hazard.Glacier-wide surface flow dynamics monitored by Sentinel-1 satellite SAR time series(12 September 2021–19 September 2022)show that HLG glacier velocity was generally consistent before and after the earthquake.The entire HLG glacier exhibited more stable than expected,with almost no abnormal features detected in its upper accumulation part,the lower ice tongue,and its lateral paraglacial slopes.Since the glacier valley has experienced remarkable downwasting and the paraglacial environment has been strongly disturbed and destabilized,we suggested that,to efficiently evaluate glacier-related cascading hazard risks,it is also necessary to systematically combine multi-source observations(e.g.,high-resolution UAV survey,radar/Lidar scan,ground investigation,monitoring and warning systems)to continuously monitor the regional glacier anomalies in the post-earthquake seismic active areas.

Comprehensive interpretation of the Sedongpu glacier-related mass flows in the eastern Himalayan syntaxis

Glacier-related mass flows(GMFs)in the high-mountain cryosphere have become more frequent in the last decade,e.g.,the 2018 Sedongpu(SDP)GMFs in the Himalayas.Seismic forcing,thermal perturbation and heavy rainfall are common triggers of the GMFs.But the exact role of seimic forcing in the GMF formation is poorly known due to scarity of observational data of real cases.Here the evolution processes of the GMFs and the detachment of the trunk glacier in SDP are reconstructed by using remote sensing techniques,including feature-tracking of multi-source optical satellite imagery and visual interpretation.The reconstruction demonstrates that the high frequency of GMF events in SDP after the Milin earthquake on 18 November 2017 was mainly attributed to the earthquake-induced glacial stress changes and destablisation.The post-earthquake velocity of the trunk glacier is about three times of that in December 2016 and December 2017.The median glacier-surface velocity raised to 0.32 m d-1between November 2017 and June 2018,being 14%-77%higher than that of pre-earthquake,which is initiated by the seismic forcing and then aggravated by additional loading of ice/rock avalanches,infiltration of liquid water,progressively crevassed glacier,and local compressional deformation.Ensuing surge motion of the trunk glacier resulted from high temperature and heavy precipitation between July and September 2018.We infer that the trunk glacier is more sensitive to the thermal perturbation after the Milin earthquake,which is the predominant cause in sudden surge movement.These findings reveal comprehensive mechanisms of quakeinduced,low-angle,glacial detachment and multisource-driven GMF in the Himalayas.