Rock falls in the Mont Blanc Massif in 2007 and 2008

Ravanel, Ludovic; Allignol, Françoise; Deline, Philip; Gruber, Stephan; Ravello, M.

doi:10.1007/s10346-010-0206-z

Cited by 124 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…However, we point out that only a few inventories of this type are available in the literature, and their size and systematic nature are comparable to that of our dataset (Noetzli et al, 2003;Ravanel et al, 2010;Allen et al, 2011;Fischer et al, 2012;Allen and Huggel, 2013). We have concentrated on those events that, based on the available documentation, occurred in the absence of evident rainfall, in order to assess if temperature (and climate warming) could be a key factor at high-elevation sites, where the cryosphere plays a major role in geomorphological dynamics, including slope failures.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Paranunzio

Laio

Chiarle

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Climate change is seriously affecting the cryosphere in terms, for example, of permafrost thaw, alteration of rain/snow ratio, and glacier shrinkage. There is concern about the increasing number of rockfalls at high elevation in the last decades. Nevertheless, the exact role of climate parameters in slope instability at high elevation has not been fully explored yet. In this paper, we investigate 41 rockfalls listed in different sources (newspapers, technical reports, and CNR IRPI archive) in the elevation range 1500-4200 m a.s.l. in the Italian Alps between 1997 and 2013 in the absence of an evident trigger. We apply and improve an existing data-based statistical approach to detect the anomalies of climate parameters (temperature and precipitation) associated with rockfall occurrences. The identified climate anomalies have been related to the spatiotemporal distribution of the events. Rockfalls occurred in association with significant temperature anomalies in 83 % of our case studies. Temperature represents a key factor contributing to slope failure occurrence in different ways. As expected, warm temperatures accelerate snowmelt and permafrost thaw; however, surprisingly, negative anomalies are also often associated with slope failures. Interestingly, different regional patterns emerge from the data: higher-than-average temperatures are often associated with rockfalls in the Western Alps, while in the Eastern Alps slope failures are mainly associated with colder-than-average temperatures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Paranunzio

Laio

Chiarle

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…(c) Ice wedges on slopes are likely underestimated in their frequency of occurrence as their micro-topographic signature is suppressed by soil movement (Mackay, 1990). In bedrock permafrost, fractures often contain large amounts of ice, affecting slope stability and flow of water Ravanel et al, 2010), and the slow formation of ice-rich layers by segregation appears plausible (Girard et al, 2013). The freezing and melting of ice in soil or rock occurs progressively over a range of temperatures below 0 • C and the high latent heat of fusion often subdues temperature change in frozen soil (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review article: Inferring permafrost and permafrost thaw in the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The cryosphere reacts sensitively to climate change, as evidenced by the widespread retreat of mountain glaciers. Subsurface ice contained in permafrost is similarly affected by climate change, causing persistent impacts on natural and human systems. In contrast to glaciers, permafrost is not observable spatially and therefore its presence and possible changes are frequently overlooked. Correspondingly, little is known about permafrost in the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, despite permafrost area exceeding that of glaciers in nearly all countries. Based on evidence and insight gained mostly in other permafrost areas globally, this review provides a synopsis on what is known or can be inferred about permafrost in the mountains of the HKH region. Given the extreme nature of the environment concerned, it is to be expected that the diversity of conditions and phenomena encountered in permafrost exceed what has previously been described and investigated. We further argue that climate change in concert with increasing development will bring about diverse permafrost-related impacts on vegetation, water quality, geohazards, and livelihoods. To better anticipate and mitigate these effects, a deepened understanding of high-elevation permafrost in subtropical latitudes as well as the pathways interconnecting environmental changes and human livelihoods are needed.

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“…Due to global climate warming, significant efforts have been devoted to permafrost research, such as permafrost variations on the hemispheric-scale permafrost temperature changes (Wu and Zhang, 2008;Guglielmin and Cannone, 2012;Streletskiy et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2015), permafrost degradation (Jorgenson et al, 2006;Ravanel et al, 2010;Sannel and Kuhry, 2011;Streletskiy et al, 2015a;Park et al, 2016), hydrological processes in permafrost regions Wang et al, 2009;Park et al, 2013;Streletskiy et al, 2015b;Ford and Frauenfeld, 2016), feedbacks to climate change (Schuur et al, 2008;Park et al, 2015;Abbott et al, 2016), and other aspects. The increasing thickness of the active layer has been indicated by many observations in permafrost regions at high latitudes and altitudes (Brown et al, 2000;Frauenfeld et al, 2004;Zhang et al, 2005;Fyodorov-Davydov et al, 2008;Wu et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2010;Callaghan et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2014a, b;Stocker et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of seasonal soil freeze depth to climate change across China

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The response of seasonal soil freeze depth to climate change has repercussions for the surface energy and water balance, ecosystems, the carbon cycle, and soil nutrient exchange. Despite its importance, the response of soil freeze depth to climate change is largely unknown. This study employs the Stefan solution and observations from 845 meteorological stations to investigate the response of variations in soil freeze depth to climate change across China. Observations include daily air temperatures, daily soil temperatures at various depths, mean monthly gridded air temperatures, and the normalized difference vegetation index. Results show that soil freeze depth decreased significantly at a rate of −0.18 ± 0.03 cm yr −1 , resulting in a net decrease of 8.05 ± 1.5 cm over 1967-2012 across China. On the regional scale, soil freeze depth decreases varied between 0.0 and 0.4 cm yr −1 in most parts of China during 1950-2009. By investigating potential climatic and environmental driving factors of soil freeze depth variability, we find that mean annual air temperature and ground surface temperature, air thawing index, ground surface thawing index, and vegetation growth are all negatively associated with soil freeze depth. Changes in snow depth are not correlated with soil freeze depth. Air and ground surface freezing indices are positively correlated with soil freeze depth. Comparing these potential driving factors of soil freeze depth, we find that freezing index and vegetation growth are more strongly correlated with soil freeze depth, while snow depth is not significant. We conclude that air temperature increases are responsible for the decrease in seasonal freeze depth. These results are important for understanding the soil freeze-thaw dynamics and the impacts of soil freeze depth on ecosystem and hydrological process.

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Rock falls in the Mont Blanc Massif in 2007 and 2008

Cited by 124 publications

References 11 publications

Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Review article: Inferring permafrost and permafrost thaw in the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region

Response of seasonal soil freeze depth to climate change across China

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