Estimation of seismic energy released by snow avalanches

Abstract

The use of seismic signals created by an avalanche allow us to get many details of it, such as its type (powder, wet or transitional), its velocity or an estimation of its released seismic energy or size. In this work an analysis on the frequency distribution, the velocity and duration of the signals is used to estimate the energy of three avalanches of different types (powder snow, transitional and wet snow) artificially provoked in the Vallée de La Sionne (Switzerland). The seismic signals were recorded by the instrumentation of the avalanche group of University of Barcelona