Abstract. In the upper part of mountain river catchments, large amounts of loose debris produced by mass-wasting processes can accumulate at the base of slopes and cliffs. Sudden destabilizations of these deposits are thought to trigger energetic sediment pulses that may travel in downstream rivers with little exchange with the local bed. The dynamics of these exogenous sediment pulses remain poorly known because direct field observations are lacking, and the processes that control their formation and propagation have rarely been explored. Here we carry out flume experiments with the aims of investigating (i) the role of sediment accumulation zones in the generation of sediment pulses, (ii) their propagation dynamics in low-order mountain channels, and (iii) the capability of seismic methods to unravel their physical properties. We use an original setup wherein we supply liquid and solid discharge to a low-slope storage zone acting like a natural sediment accumulation zone that is connected to a downstream 18 % steep channel equipped with geophones. We show that the ability of the self-formed deposit to generate sediment pulses is controlled by the fine fraction of the mixture. In particular, when coarse grains coexist with a high content of finer particles, the storage area experiences alternating phases of aggradation and erosion strongly impacted by grain sorting. The upstream processes also influence the composition of the sediment pulses, which are formed by a front made of the coarsest fraction of the sediment mixture, a body composed of a high concentration of sand corresponding to the peak of solid discharge, and a diluted tail that exhibits a wide grain size distribution. Seismic measurements reveal that the front dominates the overall seismic noise, but we observe a complex dependency between seismic power and sediment pulse transport characteristics, which questions the applicability of existing seismic theories in such a context. These findings challenge the classical approach for which the sediment budget of mountain catchments is merely reduced to an available volume, since not only hydrological but also granular conditions should be considered to predict the occurrence and propagation of such sediment pulses.

Abstract. On 2 October 2020, the Maritime Alps in southern France were struck by the devastating Storm Alex, which caused locally more than 600 mm of rain in less than 24 h. The extreme rainfall and flooding destroyed regional rain and stream gauges. That hinders our understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of rainfall–runoff processes during the storm. Here, we show that seismological observations from permanent seismic stations constrain these processes at a catchment scale. The analysis of seismic power, peak frequency, and the back azimuth provides us with the timing and velocity of the propagation of flash-flood waves associated with bedload-dominated phases of the flood on the Vésubie River. Moreover, the combined short-term average to long-term average ratio and template-matching earthquake detection reveal that 114 local earthquakes between local magnitude ML=-0.5 and ML=2 were triggered by the hydrological loading and/or the resulting in situ underground pore pressure increase. This study shows the impact of Storm Alex on the Earth's surface and deep-layer processes and paves the way for future works that can reveal further details of these processes.