Ice Boost! Why rock avalanches that contain ice trips so far

The most prominent aspects of editors are summaries of recent documents of AGU magazine editors.

Fountain: Geophysical Research Magazine: Earth surface

Rock avalanches are a great danger in mountainous regions. In cold areas, the presence of ice can make these avalanches even more dangerous, since rock avalanches usually travel much further than rock avalanches. However, the mechanism through which the mobility of avalanches is affected by the presence of ice is little known.

Fan et al. [2024] Use a new experimental channel equipped with high -speed cameras that can be maintained at a temperature of -10 ° C to document the impact of the addition of ice fragments on the mobility of rock avalanches. Using this configuration, the authors collect unique information about the complex interactions between fragments within the avalanche. For the first time, they document how the segregation of particles occurs in these rock ice avalanches (see the previous diagram), and how this segregation can affect the avalanche.

According to these results, the authors propose a new equation to calculate the friction coefficient of rock ice avalanches based on the relative ice content in the mixture. This friction coefficient can be used to predict to what extent an avalanche of given rock ice would travel. This represents an important development for the prediction and mitigation of the danger of avalanche in high mountain areas, particularly since the withdrawal of glaciers induced by climate change is leading to a growing exposure of slopes that contain a mixture of fragments of Roca and ice.

Citation: Fan, X., Feng, Z., Ni, T., Deng, Y., Zhang, J. and DAI, L. (2025). The friction behavior of rock ice avalanches in relation to the segregation of rock ice: ideas of famous physical experiments. Geophysical Research Magazine: Earth surface, 130, E2024JF007904. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JF007904

—Mikaël Attal, outgoing editor, JGR: Earth surface

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