Summer rainstorm associated with a debris flow in the Amarilla gully affecting the international Agua Negra Pass (30°20′S), Argentina

Abstract

The Central-West region of Argentina was seriously affected by a series of convective summer storms on January-February of 2013 generating many debris flows and rockfall in the Central Andes mountain regions. In particular, the unreported 8th February event caused the sad death of a 10-year-old child being completely ignored by society and local authorities. Despite this, meteorological conditions associated with this event and further episodes were rarely measured and determined mainly due to scarce meteorological stations in Andean mountain areas. In this paper, meteorological data from CMORPH algorithm and measurements of surrounding gauges were analyzed for estimating the triggering precipitation value of this event. As well, the particular debris flow channeled into the main branch of the Amarilla gully in the Agua Negra valley was geomorphologically described. The amount of precipitation associated with this debris flow was 5.5 and 13.2 mm accumulated previous to the event. This violent debris flow was generated in a talus zone in a periglacial environment located just below a covered rock glacier. However, the influence of the permafrost thawing in this process is not feasible. The altitude of the 0 °C isotherm was lower during the previous days of the event, and no monitoring on permafrost is available for this area. The volume of removed mass was estimated in 5 9 10 4 m 3 , and the mean velocity was 35 km/h. Boulders of 4 m diameter were found in the source area, while the deposit is up to 75% sandy with clasts that hardly exceed 10 cm in the alluvial fan distal part. Herein the main objective is to advice about the probable catastrophic impact of similar events in the future. These findings could be useful for hazard remediation, mitigation, and prevention plans for the Agua Negra international pass under construction.

Erosion after an extreme storm event in an arid fluvial system of the southern Atacama Desert: an assessment of the magnitude, return time, and conditioning factors of erosion and debris flow generation

“…The results of the logistic regression model in the Elqui River valley (Vergara Dal Pont et al, 2018) support that the prediction of high-discharge events does not depend on the accumulated rainfall. These selective activations have been previously reported in other Andean catchments (Colombo, 2010;Lauro et al, 2017), which is explained by different coupling statuses between tributary catchments and trunk valleys (Fryirs et al, 2007;Mather and Stokes, 2017). Previous studies in geomorphology had shown that the measurement of rock strength can be used to indirectly determine weathering rates and to predict volumes and grainsize supply within the catchments (Roda-Boluda et al, 2018, and references therein).…”

Erosion after an extreme storm event in an arid fluvial system of the southern Atacama Desert: an assessment of magnitude, return time, and conditioning factors of erosion caused by debris flows

“…The selective generation of debris flows on tributary catchments has been reported previously in Andean catchments (Colombo, 2010;Lauro et al, 2017). This random activation might be explained by different coupling degrees between catchments and trunk valley (Fryirs et al, 2007;Mather and Stokes, 2017) or by the absence of the necessary rainfall amount to trigger debris flows in some catchments linked to the heterogeneous rainfall distribution characteristically of ENSO events (Colombo, 2010;Cabré et al, 2019).…”

Debris Flows Occurrence in the Semiarid Central Andes under Climate Change Scenario

“…The material volume was estimated at 50,000 m 3 with an average speed of 35 km/h. As a result, the international road was closed for several days and isolated 11 families at the Chilean customs [86].…”