Dendrochronological study of the Canal del Roc Roig avalanche path: first results of the Aludex project in the Pyrenees

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Historical data about ancient avalanches are scarce in the Pyrenees.Dendrochronology can provide new data about past avalanches and their return period, but up to now little research has been carried out with this purpose. The Aludex project aims to obtain information about the frequency and extent of extreme avalanches, using a dendrochronological and a nivo-meteorological approach. In this paper, we present the results of a dendrochronological study of the Canal del Roc Roig avalanche path which was affected by two extreme avalanches in February 1996. This first dendrochronological study has permitted us to assess the tree-ring signals due to avalanche events in 53 out of 132 dated trees. The trees presented a variety of responses to the 1996 avalanche events. It is shown that the type of tree-ring signal depends on tree age. The methodology has proved successful in detecting the 1996 and 1972 documented avalanche events, and provided outstanding evidence of undocumented past events such as one in 1930.

Debris-flow activity and snow avalanches in a steep watershed of the Valais Alps (Switzerland): Dendrogeomorphic event reconstruction and identification of triggers

“…While most studies have been performed in North America, only a limited number of studies exist for Europe to date (Muntán et al, 2004;Casteller et al, 2007). Studies have primarily addressed the frequency and spatial distribution of past activity (Patten and Knight, 1994;Hebertson and Jenkins, 2003) or focused on the identification of high-magnitude events (Boucher et al, 2003;Dubé et al, 2004).…”

Characterizing major avalanche episodes in space and time in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the Catalan Pyrenees

“…(ii) P2, which covers the twentieth century, until winter 1994/95. Mostly, the record was obtained from 165 inquiries to the local population, but also from dendrochronological analyses (Muntán et al, 2004 and). The dataset is 166 incomplete but probably the most important events were recorded.…”

“…From a spatial point of view, depending on the sampling effort, a resolution 261 of the order of 10 m can be obtained. Thus, we included data from dendrochronology in the dataset in the few cases where 262 there was enough information related to runout extent (Muntán et al, 2004(Muntán et al, , 2009. 263…”

Dendrogeomorphology and high-magnitude snow avalanches: a review and case study

“…Ward (1985) used tree-ring damage, focusing on corrasion scars, to examine avalanches in the Cairngorms of Scotland. Muntán et al (2004) presented the first results of tree-ring dating of avalanches in the Pyrenees. Stoffel et al (2006) illustrated how to distinguish between trees damaged by debris flows and snow avalanches on a runout cone in Switzerland, and Casteller et al (2007) dated avalanche events in eastern Switzerland using reaction wood formation, abrupt growth changes (suppression/release), and traumatic resin ducts.…”