Output details
15 - General Engineering
University of Edinburgh (joint submission with Heriot-Watt University)
Anticrack Nucleation as Triggering Mechanism for Snow Slab Avalanches
This leading general science journal paper, supported by a further 9 pages of on-line material at www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5886/240/DC1, shows that snow slab avalanche is driven by energy released through microstructural collapse. This finding challenges previous scientific consensus regarding slab avalanches, with far-reaching practical implications for avalanche risk assessment. It was taken up by agencies and companies doing avalanche risk mitigation in Scotland, the US (Birkeland, US Forest Avalanche Center, kbirkeland@fs.fed.us), Switzerland (Harvey, WSL/SLF, harvey@slf.ch), France (ALEA+ LGGE, F. Louchet, louchet@lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr), and Austria. There is a sustained effort to disseminate these results to avalanche practitioners, guides, skiers, mountaineers and general public (DoI:10.1002/piuz.201001224).
