Wet slab avalanches: theory and recent research…or what do we really know about wet slabs?
Peitzsch, E. 2008. Wet slab avalanches: theory and recent research…or what do we really know about wet slabs?, The Avalanche Review, 26:4, 20-21.
Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D
Biography
Education
Ph.D. Earth Sciences, Snow Science. 2020. Montana State University, Bozeman
MS. Earth Sciences (Snow Science). 2009. Montana State University, Bozeman
BA. Environmental Studies. 2000. Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
Research Interests
My main interests lie in the realm of snow and ice. Previous projects include investigating wet snow avalanche processes, such as water movement in the snowpack and its implications for wet slab avalanches. Working as an avalanche forecaster for the spring opening of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park allows me to continue work on wet snow avalanche projects such as glide slab avalanches. I am also interested in investigating ecological change associated with avalanches, avalanche runout probability, and the relationship between climate and avalanches. Other research interests include monitoring mass balance of small mountain catchment glaciers.
Science and Products
Date published: May 5, 2016
Status: Active Climate Change in Mountain Ecosystems (CCME)
Climate change is widely acknowledged to be having a profound effect on the biosphere with many and diverse impacts on global resources. Mountain ecosystems in the western U.S. and the Northern Rockies in particular are highly sensitive to climate change. In fact, the higher elevations of the Northern Rockies have experienced three times the global average temperature increase over the past...
Date published: April 26, 2016
Status: Active Flattop Mountain SNOTEL Snowpack: Water Year 2018
The Flattop Mountain SNOTEL (SNOw TELemetry) station is one of nearly 600 similar stations operated throughout the western United States by the Natural Resources Conservations Service (NRCS, U.S. Department of Agriculture). These stations measure and record Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), which is the weight of snow water equivalent to inches of water. Most SNOTEL sites also measure temperature...
Date published: April 6, 2016
Going-to-the-Sun Road Avalanche Forecasting Program
The Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTTSR) is one of the premier attractions in Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana. It opened in 1933 after 12 years of construction and is one of GNP’s most heavily used facilities. The two-lane, 80-kilometer road traverses the park from west to east, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass at 2026m elevation. The Park closes a 56km section of the road each...
Contacts: Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D, Daniel B Fagre, Ph.D.
Date published: April 6, 2016
Natural Hazards of Spring Opening of Going to the Sun Road
The Going-to-the-Sun (GTTS) Road in Glacier National Park, Montana is one of the park's premier attractions and the most heavily used facility. The road traverses Glacier, from the west entrance in West Glacier to the east entrance in St. Mary. The narrow, 52-mile road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, at an elevation of 6880 feet. The Logan Pass section of the GTTS Road is...
Contacts: Daniel B Fagre, Ph.D., Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D
Date published: April 6, 2016
Status: Active Retreat of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
Worldwide glacier recession is well documented (1,2) and varied model projections suggest that certain studied GNP glaciers will disappear in the next few decades, between 2030 (3) to 2080 (4). USGS scientists in Glacier National Park are collaborating with glaciologist from Alaska and Washington and using emerging technologies to understand glacier-climate interactions to advance the...
Contacts: Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D, Lisa McKeon
Date published: April 6, 2016
Status: Active Landscape Change Photography
Repeat photography is being used by the CCME program to document landscape change. Glaciers have been the primary focus of this park-wide survey and this collection of repeat photographs, available for download on the CCME website, have been used to illustrate the effects of climate change in venues across the globe. These powerful images, with their inherent ease of interpretation, have...
Contacts: Lisa McKeon, Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D
Date published: April 5, 2016
Status: Active Snow and Avalanche Research
Since 1991, CCME staff have conducted snow surveys throughout Glacier National Park. These data have contributed to regional climate change and hydrologic models. Snowpack characteristics have also been evaluated in relation to avalanche forecasting and plowing of GNP’s Going to the Sun Road efforts. Studies of natural snow avalanches reveal connections with large-scale climate and wildfire...
Contacts: Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D, Daniel B Fagre, Ph.D.
Date published: April 5, 2016
Status: Active Glacier Research
As Glacier National Park’s namesake glaciers recede, CCME staff are monitoring many of the park’s glaciers to determine the causes of change, assess their ecological and hydrological effects, and predict future changes and effects. Intensive research to determine the mass balance of Sperry Glacier will determine whether small cirque glaciers like Sperry can serve as reliable indicators of...
Contacts: Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D
Date published: April 5, 2016
Status: Active Glacier Monitoring Studies
The purpose of the CCME's glacier monitoring studies is to systematically monitor changes in Glacier National Park’s namesake glaciers and to determine the causes of changes, assess their ecological and hydrological effects, and predict future changes and effects.
...
Contacts: Erich Peitzsch, Ph.D
Year Published: 2019
Reanalysis of the U.S. Geological Survey Benchmark Glaciers: Long-term insight into climate forcing of glacier mass balance
Mountain glaciers integrate climate processes to provide an unmatched signal of regional climate forcing. However, extracting the climate signal via intercomparison of regional glacier mass balance records can be problematic when methods for extrapolating and calibrating direct glaciological measurements are mixed or inconsistent. To address this...
O'Neel, Shad; McNeil, Christopher J.; Sass, Louis C.; Florentine, Caitlyn; Baker, Emily; Peitzsch, Erich; McGrath, Daniel J; Fountain, Andrew G.; Fagre, Daniel B.
Year Published: 2019
Forecasting for dry and wet avalanches during mixed rain and snow storm events
Professionals in coastal and some inland mountain ranges regularly face mixed rain-snow events. Professionals in inland ranges frequently deal with persistent slab avalanches failing on old faceted layers buried deep within the snowpack. What happens when you combine these snowpack and weather events? Widespread avalanching involving faceted...
Savage, Scott; Peitzsch, Erich; Trautman, Simon; VandenBos, Benjamin
Year Published: 2018
Detecting snow depth change in avalanche path starting zones using uninhabited aerial systems and structure from motion photogrammetry
Understanding snow depth distribution and change is useful for avalanche forecasting and mitigation, runoff forecasting, and infrastructure planning. Advances in remote sensing are improving the ability to collect snow depth measurements. The development of structure from motion (SfM), a photogrammetry technique, combined with the use of...
Peitzsch, Erich H.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Hendrikx, Jordy; Birkeland, Karl W.Attribution: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, United States of America
View Citation
Peitzsch, E.H., Fagre, D.B., Hendrikx, J., Birkeland, K.W. Detecting snow depth change in avalanche path starting zones using uninhabited aerial systems and structure from motion photogrammetry. In: Proceedings of the 2018 International Snow Science Workshop, Innsbruck, Austria. 8-12 October 2018.
Year Published: 2018
Identifying major avalanche years from a regional tree-ring based avalanche chronology for the U.S. Northern Rocky Mountains
Avalanches not only pose a major hazard to people and infrastructure, but also act as an important ecological disturbance. In many mountainous regions in North America, including areas with existing transportation corridors, reliable and consistent avalanche records are sparse or non-existent. Thus, inferring long-term avalanche...
Peitzsch, Erich H.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Pederson, Gregory T.; Hendrikx, Jordy; Birkeland, Karl W.; Stahle, DanielAttribution: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, United States of America
View Citation
Peitzsch, E.H., Fagre, D.B., Pederson, G.T, Hendrikx, J., Birkeland, K.W., Stahle, D. Identifying major avalanche years from a regional tree-ring based avalanche chronology for the U.S. northern Rocky Mountains. In: Proceedings of the 2018 International Snow Science Workshop, Innsbruck, Austria. 8-12 October 2018.
Year Published: 2018
Local topography increasingly influences the mass balance of a retreating cirque glacier
Local topographically driven processes – such as wind drifting, avalanching, and shading – are known to alter the relationship between the mass balance of small cirque glaciers and regional climate. Yet partitioning such local effects from regional climate influence has proven difficult, creating uncertainty in the climate representativeness of...
Florentine, Caitlyn; Harper, Joel T.; Fagre, Daniel B.; Moore, Johnnie; Peitzsch, Erich H.
Year Published: 2018
On the exchange of sensible and latent heat between the atmosphere and melting snow
The snow energy balance is difficult to measure during the snowmelt period, yet critical for predictions of water yield in regions characterized by snow cover. Robust simplifications of the snowmelt energy balance can aid our understanding of water resources in a changing climate. Research to date has demonstrated that the net turbulent flux (FT)...
Stoy, Paul C.; Peitzsch, Erich H.; Wood, David J. A.; Rottinghaus, Daniel; Wohlfahrtd, Georg; Goulden, Michael; Ward, HelenAttribution: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, United States of America
View Citation
Paul C. Stoy, Erich Peitzsch, David Wood, Daniel Rottinghaus, Georg Wohlfahrt, Michael Goulden, Helen Ward, On the exchange of sensible and latent heat between the atmosphere and melting snow, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volume 252, 15 April 2018, Pages 167-174, ISSN 0168-1923, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2018.01.028.
Year Published: 2017
Glaciological measurements and mass balances from Sperry Glacier, Montana, USA, years 2005–2015
Glacier mass balance measurements help to provide an understanding of the behavior of glaciers and their response to local and regional climate. In 2005 the United States Geological Survey established a surface mass balance monitoring program on Sperry Glacier, Montana, USA. This project is the first quantitative study of mass changes of a glacier...
Clark, Adam; Fagre, Daniel B.; Peitzsch, Erich H.; Reardon, Blase A.; Harper, Joel T.View Citation
Clark, A. M., Fagre, D. B., Peitzsch, E. H., Reardon, B. A., and Harper, J. T.: Glaciological measurements and mass balances from Sperry Glacier, Montana, USA, years 2005–2015, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 47-61, doi:10.5194/essd-9-47-2017, 2017.
Year Published: 2016
Case study: 2016 Natural glide and wet slab avalanche cycle, Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
The Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTSR) is the premier tourist attraction in Glacier National Park, Montana. The GTSR also traverses through and under 40 avalanche paths which pose a hazard to National Park Service (NPS) road crews during the annual spring snow plowing operation. Through a joint collaboration between the NPS and the U.S. Geological...
Hutchinson, Jacob; Peitzsch, Erich H.; Clark, AdamAttribution: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, United States of America
View Citation
Hutchinson, J., Peitzsch, E.H., , Clark, A. 2016. Cascading types of wet snow avalanches: a case study from Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana. In: E. Greene (Editor), Proceedings ISSW 2016. International Snow Science Workshop, Breckenridge CO, U.S.A., 3-7 October 2016. pp. 66-73
Year Published: 2016
Using structure from motion photogrammetry to examine glide snow avalanches
Structure from Motion (SfM), a photogrammetric technique, has been used extensively and successfully in many fields including geosciences over the past few years to create 3D models and high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from aerial or oblique photographs. SfM has recently been used in a limited capacity in snow avalanche research and...
Peitzsch, Erich H.; Hendrikx, Jordy; Fagre, Daniel B.Attribution: Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), Ecosystems, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, United States of America
View Citation
Peitzsch, E.H., Hendrikx, J., and Fagre, D. 2016. Using Structure from Motion Photogrammetry to investigate glide avalanches. In: E. Greene (Editor), Proceedings ISSW 2016. International Snow Science Workshop, Breckenridge CO, U.S.A., 3-7 October 2016, pp. 12-16.
Year Published: 2014
Assessing the importance of terrain parameters on glide avalanche release
Glide snow avalanches are dangerous and difficult to predict. Despite recent research there is still a lack of understanding regarding the controls of glide avalanche release. Glide avalanches often occur in similar terrain or the same locations annually and observations suggest that topography may be critical. Thus, to gain an understanding of...
Peitzsch, Erich H.; Hendrikx, Jordy; Fagre, Daniel B.
Year Published: 2012
Examining spring wet slab and glide avalanche occurrence along the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
Wet slab and glide snow avalanches are dangerous and yet can be particularly difficult to predict. Wet slab and glide avalanches are presumably triggered by free water moving through the snowpack and the subsequent interaction with layer or ground interfaces, and typically occur in the spring during warming and subsequent melt periods. In Glacier...
Peitzsch, Erich H.; Hendrikx, Jordy; Fagre, Daniel B.; Reardon, Blase
Year Published: 2012
Time lapse photography as an approach to understanding glide avalanche activity
Avalanches resulting from glide cracks are notoriously difficult to forecast, but are a recurring problem for numerous avalanche forecasting programs. In some cases glide cracks are observed to open and then melt away in situ. In other cases, they open and then fail catastrophically as large, full-depth avalanches. Our understanding and management...
Hendrikx, Jordy; Peitzsch, Erich H.; Fagre, Daniel B.Pre-USGS Publications
Date published: May 30, 2017
Improving avalanche hazard forecasting in a variable climate in mountain ecosystems
This article is part of the Spring 2017 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.
Attribution: Land Change Science Program