Snow Avalanche Impact Measurements at the Seehore Test Site in Aosta Valley (NW Italian Alps)

Abstract

In full-scale snow avalanche test sites, structures such as pylons, plates, or dams have been used to measure impact forces and pressures from avalanches. Impact pressures are of extreme importance when dealing with issues such as hazard mapping and the design of buildings exposed to avalanches. In this paper, we present the force measurements recorded for five selected avalanches that occurred at the Seehore test site in Aosta Valley (NW Italian Alps). The five avalanches were small to medium-sized and cover a wide range in terms of snow characteristics and flow dynamics. Our aim was to analyze the force and pressure measurements with respect to the avalanche characteristics. We measured pressures in the range of 2 to 30 kPa. Though without exhaustive measurements of the avalanche flows, we found indications of different flow regimes. For example, we could appreciate some differences in the vertical profile of the pressures recorded for wet dense avalanches and powder ones. Being aware of the fact that more complete measurements are necessary to fully describe the avalanche flows, we think that the data of the five avalanches triggered at the Seehore test site might add some useful information to the ongoing scientific discussion on avalanche flow regimes and impact pressure.

Avalanche Hazard Modelling within the Kráľova Hoľa Area in the Low Tatra Mountains in Slovakia

“…The last research question (hypothesis) concerned the evaluation of the relevance of results obtained through the two-dimensional numerical simulation model RAMMS for the purpose of optimizing the potential use of land and preventing the risks posed by avalanche activity. This assumption has been confirmed, as pointed out by several authors in their multiple studies in different high mountain areas [96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103].…”

A Study on Avalanche-Triggering Factors and Activity Characteristics in Aerxiangou, West Tianshan Mountains, China

“…In the study of the mechanism of avalanche disasters, the physical and mechanical nature and trends of the dynamic change process from the steady state to unstable sliding are analyzed under the joint action of the inherent geological conditions of the mountain area and meteorological and human-induced factors, which provides a theoretical basis for avalanche prediction and early warning and effective prevention [26,35]. At present, many scholars have examined various avalanche-causing mechanisms, such as the analysis of avalanche formation conditions and influencing factors [28,36,37], analysis of snow layer forces [38], analysis of snow mechanical properties and spatial and temporal variation patterns [27,39,40], and analysis of the impact of skiing on the snow layer stability [10,41]. Avalanche hazards are most likely to occur in parts of mountain slopes with favorable snowfall conditions and slopes ranging from 35 • to 45 • , and these parts of mountain slopes are key potential hazard sites.…”

Role of friction terms in two-dimensional modelling of dense snow avalanches

“…The necessity of assessing natural hazards, such as snow avalanches, and of defining strategies to minimize the associated risks has led to the development of ad hoc numerical models (Funk and Margreth, 1999;Gruber and Bartelt, 2007;Jamieson et al, 2008;Keylock and Barbolini, 2011;Maggioni et al, 2019). In this line, several guides and technical documents on the evaluation of the impact and the associated risks of snow avalanches have been published (CCA, 2016;Margreth, 2016;Rudolf-Miklau et al, 2014), in which hazard assessments are based on the variables, mainly flow depth and velocity, that result from numerical models.…”