Snow Avalanches: A review of Current Research and Applications

Abstract

AbstractSnow avalanches have long been an active area of applied glaciology. Empirical and traditional methods of forecasting and controlling avalanches are gradually giving way to the application of modern science and engineering. There are four areas of this science where progress is being made through active interaction among scientists, engineers, and practical men. The artificial, release of avalanches as a control measure has seen a large body of research regarding effects of explosives on snow but still is handicapped by inadequate basic knowledge about avalanche release mechanisms. There is currently a surge of interest in testing numerical methods of avalanche forecasting and several sophisticated statistical techniques have been introduced, but operational forecasting still depends largely on empirical experience. The pressure of development on alpine lands has brought to the fore a number of problems associated with mapping avalanches, determining their return intervals and deducing their behavior from both observations of terrain and vegetation and calculating their behavior from theory. The ability to predict the characteristics of moving avalanches is advancing through a combination of theoretical insights and field observations, but is inhibited by the difficulty of the latter.