The source, quantity, and spatial distribution of interfacial water during glide-snow avalanche release: experimental evidence from field monitoring

Fees, Amelie; Lombardo, Michael; van Herwijnen, Alec; Lehmann, Peter; Schweizer, Jürg

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1453-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1453-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1453-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Research article

|

01 Apr 2025

Research article |

| 01 Apr 2025

The source, quantity, and spatial distribution of interfacial water during glide-snow avalanche release: experimental evidence from field monitoring

Amelie Fees, Michael Lombardo, Alec van Herwijnen, Peter Lehmann, and Jürg Schweizer

Data sets

Spatio-temporal soil and local snow monitoring in a glide-snow avalanche prone slope above Davos, Switzerland Amelie Fees et al. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.583

Short summary

Glide-snow avalanches release at the soil–snow interface due to a loss of friction, which is suspected to be linked to interfacial water. The importance of the interfacial water was investigated with a spatio-temporal monitoring setup for soil and local snow on an avalanche-prone slope. Seven glide-snow avalanches were released on the monitoring grid (winter seasons 2021/22 to 2023/24) and provided insights into the source, quantity, and spatial distribution of interfacial water before avalanche release.