Slushflows at El Port del Comte, northeast Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Slushfl ows were first recorded in the Iberi a n Peninsul a on 18 D ecember 1997. Three slushfl ows wer e rel eased at the ski resort of El Port d el Comte, in th e Catala n Pyrenees, northeast Spa in, d uring inte nse rainfa ll. Two of the slu shflows ori gin a ted on the pistes, and th e third affected a noth er pi ste. Three ski lifts were damaged. This p ap er anaIyzes th e h ydrogeological cha rac teristics of the m ass if, th e geom orphic features o f the terrain a nd th e meteorological a nd snow pac k co nditi ons th a t ca used the re lease of th e slushflows. M a n's role in tri gge ring the slushflows by compac ting snow on the pi stes is also considered. Drain age co ntrol for reducing th e haza rd is o utlin ed , taking into co nsiderati on th e low frequency of th e phenomenon.

A large wet snow avalanche cycle in West Greenland quantified using remote sensing and in situ observations

“…Connecting event-based avalanche studies to longer meteorological time series is powerful in order to determine weather conditions that lead to large-scale avalanche events. Similar research has been completed in Sweden (Rapp 1960), Greenland (Nobles 1966), Alaska (Onesti 1985), Spain (Furdada et al 1999) and Svalbard (Eckerstorfer and Christiansen 2011). Avalanche cycles on a large spatial scale have been reported, mainly in the inhabited areas of the Alps (Höller 2009;Rousselot et al 2010) or North America (Birkeland and Mock 2001) where compilations of avalanches are based on extensive ground-based reporting.…”

Meteorology, Topography and Snowpack Conditions causing Two Extreme Mid‐Winter Slush and Wet Slab Avalanche Periods in High Arctic Maritime Svalbard

“…Slush avalanches triggered by rain‐on‐snow events in mid winter have also been reported from many locations along the west coast of mainland Norway (Hestnes, ; Hestnes and Sandersen, ; Hestnes et al ., 2004). Snow slush avalanches triggered by mid‐winter rain also occurred in Spain in December 1997 (Furdada et al ., ). However, we have found no reports of mid‐winter slush avalanche events of comparable size elsewhere in the Arctic.…”

“…The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute devoted much of its scientific efforts to examining slush avalanche occurrences and trigger mechanisms (Hestnes, ; Hestnes and Sandersen, ; Onesti and Hestnes, ) on the mountainous, maritime‐influenced west coast of Norway, where they periodically destroy infrastructure (Hestnes, ). More recently, studies in Iceland (mid‐winter rain‐on‐snow event; Decaulne and Saemundsson, ) and Spain (Furdada et al ., ) have provided detailed descriptions of slush avalanche events, while Jaedicke et al . () carried out work on slush avalanche dynamics simulations.…”

Meteorological conditions during slush‐flow release and their geomorphological impact in northwestern iceland: a case study from the bíldudalur valley

“…Slush flows have also been described in lower-latitude mountainous environments (Furdada et al 1999;Elder and Kattelmann 1993), and so may be expected in all areas with a seasonal snow-cover though they may occur less frequently there.…”

“…For more than 300 years (Onesti and Hestnes 1989), this specific process has been recognised in a large range of arctic and subarctic areas, as a supraglacial dynamic (Washburn and Goldthwait 1958;Marston 1983), a hillside dynamic (Rapp 1960;Jahn 1967), and a fluvial/torrential dynamic (Barsch et al 1993;Gude and Scherer 1995;Beylich and Gintz 2004), caused by snowmelt and/or rainfall (Nyberg 1985;Conway and Raymond 1993;Scherer et al 1998). Slush flows have also been described in lower-latitude mountainous environments (Furdada et al 1999;Elder and Kattelmann 1993), and so may be expected in all areas with a seasonal snow-cover though they may occur less frequently there.…”