Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/27319
Title: Reconstructing snow avalanches in the Southeastern Pyrenees
Author: Muntán Bordas, Elena
García, C.
Oller i Figueras, Pere
Martí, G.
García, A.
Gutiérrez Merino, Emilia
Keywords: Dendroclimatologia
Dendrocronologia
Allaus
Pirineus
Dendroclimatology
Dendrochronology
Avalanches
Pyrenees
Issue Date: 28-Sep-2009
Publisher: European Geosciences Union
Abstract: A regional study of snow avalanche processes was undertaken in the SE Pyrenees. Dendrogeomorphology was used to date and reconstruct large-scale snow avalanche events that occurred in the last four decades. Dendrochronological analyses yielded the dates of nine winters when avalanches occurred in the recent past in six studied avalanche paths. Some of these avalanches were already known, but others had not been documented. In one case, the existing avalanche path map was improved with the dendrogeomorphological information of a larger past event. As a result of the dendrogeomorphological analyses, evidence for three regional-scale major avalanche years was identified in the SE Pyrenees from 1971 to 2004: 1971¿1972, 1995¿1996 and 2002¿2003. The specific synoptic atmospheric situations and the most likely nivometeorological and snowpack conditions that released these major avalanches were determined using weather data for the seasons of major avalanche releases. In 1971¿1972 the snow avalanche episode was characterized by a deep trough crossing the Pyrenees. In 1995¿1996 a variety of meteorological situations produced several episodes of major avalanches. In 2002¿2003 the more significant of two episodes was attributed to a north advection pumping an arctic air mass over the Pyrenees. The 1995¿1996 avalanche season proved to be the most notable in the four past decades in the Pyrenees.
Note: Reproducció del document publicat a: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/nhess-9-1599-2009
It is part of: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2009, Vol. 9, p. 1599-1612
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/27319
Related resource: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/nhess-9-1599-2009
ISSN: 1561-8633
Appears in Collections:Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals)

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