Triggering mechanisms of Gayari avalanche, Pakistan

Abstract

A massive snow avalanche occurred on April 2012 at Gayari, located in NE part of Pakistan, close to India and China Border. The catastrophic avalanche killed nearly 148 people, majority of which were Pakistan army personnel destroying army base camp. To mitigate its future hazard, different triggering mechanisms have been investigated in this study. We contemplate that the avalanche was triggered due to snow pack existence on favorable slope in combination with different meteorological conditions and anomalous ground vibration. The avalanche occurrence clock was advanced by two earthquakes: M 4.1 at a distance \(\sim\) 125 km that occurred about 21 h before and another comparatively larger (M 5.6) earthquake that occurred comparatively at larger distance (\(\sim\) 370 km) and longer time (\(\sim\) 25 days) before which have significantly changed the loading conditions. The latter event (M 5.6) has imparted maximum peak dynamic stress and cumulative seismic moment a month before the avalanche. Interestingly the avalanche occurred within the seismic coda of M 2.8 earthquake from Hindu Kush region, located at 560 km distance. Although the size and its expected impact on avalanche might be minor, its role in instantaneous triggering cannot be ruled out. Even smaller events at larger distance have been reported to cause snow avalanches in same environments. The presence of cracks within the avalanche was further weaken by persistence of extremely low temperature (lowest in the past decade), causing high precipitation rate along with altering the mechanical properties of the weak layer within the snow pack. Robust wind pressure pattern highest and lowest in March and April 2012, respectively, might be responsible for abrupt changes in loading conditions.