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A Depth-Averaged Material Point Method for Shallow Landslides: Applications to Snow Slab Avalanche Release

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Bertil Trottet, Denis Aloyse Joseph Steffen, Louis Marie Cédric Guillet

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a c ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2023

Failure mechanism of fine-grained soil-structure interface for energy piles

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera

The response of the soil-structure interface can significantly affect the performance of any geotechnical structure. Thermal cycles are a new factor that influence the response to all structures that have an energy function in addition to the structural on ...

2022

Unconfined Plunging of a Hyperpycnal River Plume Over a Sloping Bed and Its Lateral Spreading: Laboratory Experiments and Numerical Modeling

David Andrew Barry, Ulrich Lemmin, Koen Blanckaert, Haoran Shi

Hyperpycnal (negatively buoyant) river inflow into lakes and oceans often develops three-dimensional (3D) plunging flow patterns when laterally unconfined. To determine the 3D flow pattern characteristics, laboratory experiments of laterally unconfined plu ...

American Geophysical Union2022

Benthic Biofilms in Glacier-Fed Streams from Scandinavia to the Himalayas Host Distinct Bacterial Communities Compared with the Streamwater

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Leïla Ezzat, Massimo Bourquin, Matteo Tolosano, Emmy Marie Oppliger, Jade Brandani, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Virginia Tadei, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tyler Joe Kohler, Michail Styllas, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Martina Andrea Schön

Microbial life in glacier-fed streams (GFSs) is dominated by benthic biofilms which fulfill critical ecosystem processes. However, it remains unclear how the bacterial communities of these biofilms assemble in stream ecosystems characterized by rapid turno ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2022

Horizontal transport under wind-induced resonance in stratified waterbodies

Alfred Johny Wüest, Hugo Nicolás Ulloa Sánchez, Serban George Constantinescu, Kyoung Sik Chang

Periodic winds acting on a stratified waterbody can amplify normal modes of motion and enhance the basin-scale circulation via resonance. Here, we use idealized largeeddy simulations to investigate the flow features and quantify the horizontal transport in ...

2020

Phyllomanganate vein-infillings in faulted and Al-poor regoliths of the New Caledonian ophiolite: periodic and sequential crystallization of Ni-asbolane, Alk-birnessite and H-birnessite

Gabrielle Dublet

Mineralogy, chemistry and spatial distribution of phyllomanganates, found in abundance at the bottom of thick Ni-laterite deposits, were established on dislocated vein-infillings showing banded and fibrous patterns (i.e. colloforms with rows of tiny boxwor ...

2019

The importance of mantle wedge heterogeneity to subduction zone magmatism and the origin of EM1

Stéphane Laurent Escrig

The composition of the convecting asthenospheric mantle that feeds the mantle wedge can be investigated via rear-arc lavas that have minimal slab influence. This "ambient mantle wedge" composition (the composition of the wedge prior to the addition of a sl ...

Elsevier2017

The dam-break problem for eroding viscoplastic fluids

Christophe Ancey, Belinda Margaret Bates

Natural gravity-driven flows can increase in volume by eroding the bed on which they descend. This process is called basal entrainment and is thought to play a key role in the bulk dynamics of geophysical flows. Although its study is difficult using field ...

Elsevier2017

Quantifying snowfall and avalanche release synchronization: a case study

Paolo Perona, Benoît Crouzy, Betty Sovilla, Romain Forclaz

We quantify the synchronization between snowfall and natural avalanches in relation to terrain properties at the detachment zone. We analyze field statistics of 549 avalanche events in terms of slope, aspect, timing, coordinate, and release area, identifie ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Empirical and analytical analyses of laboratory granular flows to investigate rock avalanche propagation

Vincent Labiouse, Irene Manzella

Laboratory experiments which consist of releasing dry rigid non-cohesive grains or small bricks on an unconfined chute have been designed to investigate rock avalanche propagation mechanisms and to identify parameters influencing their deposit characterist ...

Springer Verlag2013

Similarity Scaling Over a Steep Alpine Slope

Marc Parlange, Chad Higgins, Eric Richard Pardyjak, Daniel Nadeau

In this study,we investigate the validity of similarity scaling over a steep mountain slope (30–41◦). The results are based on eddy-covariance data collected during the Slope Experiment near La Fouly (SELF-2010); a field campaign conducted in a narrow vall ...

Springer2013

Flow during the evening transition over steep Alpine slopes

Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Marc Parlange, Chad Higgins, Daniel Nadeau, Eric Richard Pardyjak

A field campaign, the Slope Experiment near La Fouly (SELF-2010), was conducted to monitor the evening transition of slope flows on clear-sky days from July to September 2010 in a narrow valley of the Swiss Alps. A steep west-facing slope with inclinations ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

Statistical Analysis of Mountain Permafrost Temperatures

Evelyn Zenklusen Mutter

The consequences of climate change are clearly visible in the Swiss Alps. In the past decades, increasing air temperatures have induced pronounced glacier retreat and permafrost thawing. Thawing permafrost in steep terrain is a potential natural hazard, as ...

EPFL2012

Coupled Hydrogeological and Geomechanical Modelling for the Analysis of Slowly-Moving Landslides

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari

Slow movements of natural slopes are quite frequent in mountainous or hilly areas. They may display occasional crises, mostly related to the increase of pore water pressures induced by exceptional climatic conditions. A methodology consisting of combining ...

ASCE2011

Technical note: Preliminary estimation of rockfall runout zones

Vincent Labiouse

Rockfall propagation areas can be determined using a simple geometric rule known as shadow angle or energy line method based on a simple Coulomb frictional model implemented in the CONEFALL computer program. Runout zones are estimated from a digital terrai ...

2011

Half-scale experimental study of rockfall impacts on sandy slopes

Vincent Labiouse, Barbara Heidenreich

In the framework of rockfall trajectory modelling, the bouncing phenomenon occurring when a rock block impacts with the slope surface is the most difficult to predict, owing to its complexity and its very limited understanding. To date, the rebound is comm ...

2009

An exact solution for ideal dam-break floods on steep slopes

Christophe Ancey, Martin Rentschler

Dam-break floods on steep slopes occur in diverse settings. They may result from failure of either natural or man-made dams, and they have been responsible for the loss of thousands of lives [Costa, 1988]. Recent disasters resulting from dam-break floods o ...

American Geophysical Union2008