Advances in the study of glacier avalanches in Tibet

Abstract

With the global warming, glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are melting and retreating rapidly, and the stability of glaciers are decreasing. As the main part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, stability of glaciers affect the safety of water, life and property in China and neighboring countries. This paper summarized the research status of ice avalanches at home and abroad, and reorganized the definition of ice avalanche disasters in Tibet; Analyzed the formation mechanism of ice avalanche from the topography, tectonic movement and climate; Summarized and analyzed the characteristics of three types of ice avalanche disaster chains. Ice avalanche- glacial lake outburst- debris flow chain disaster, ice avalanche-blocking and outburst - debris flow chain disaster, ice avalanche-debris flow (flash flood) chain disaster; Described the current methods and characteristics of ice avalanche disasters monitoring and warning, and it is believed that the trend is for a combination of multiple monitoring methods for ice avalanche disaster monitoring. The research system of ice avalanche disasters is prospected in order to provide ideas for future research work.

Keywords

• tibet
• glacier avalanches
• glacial lake outburst
• debris flow
• disaster-chain