Seminar by Ludovic Ravanel, Doctoral Research Fellow / PhD, Université Savoie Mont Blanc
Ice aprons on high-Alpine steep faces
Abstract: Ice aprons (IAs) – very small ice bodies lying on slopes greater than 40° – are still poorly known despite the fact that they are a condition for mountaineering and an important element of the high Alpine landscapes. I will present a review of recent and ongoing studies in the Mont-Blanc massif (Western Alps) where IAs occupy 2.6 % of the total glacier surface area, above the regional ELA and in permafrost context. Temperature measured in boreholes at the ice-rock interface is indeed very negative. Thinness of IAs coupled with the cold context implies a dominant stationary shear regime. After a shrinking period from the end of the LIA to the 1960s, IAs experienced a small period of expansion, followed by an accelerated shrinkage since the beginning of the 21st century, favouring rockfall triggering and posing a serious threat to a glaciological heritage since IAs host several-thousand-year-old ice.
It is possible to attend physically or to participate digitally at the seminar
Videolink to the lecture will be sent to the mailinglists alle@geo and geohyd-info@geo. If you want to subscribe to the geohyd-info@geo list send an email to Anita.
This lecture use Zoom | Download the Zoom Client for Meetings
About the seminar
This seminar is offered by the Section for Geography and Hydrology, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Oslo. The GEOHYD-seminars are announced as lunch seminars so bring your lunch if you want to.
The seminars are open for everyone interested, and especially students are welcome.
The Lunch Seminar Team
– Louise and Henning