Climate Warming and Ice Weakening Trigger Alpine Glacier Collapses - The Marmolada Case [Dolomites, Northern Italy]
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https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL121279 <-- shared paper
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https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-3027-2025 <-- shared technical article
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Marmolada_serac_collapse <-- shared Wikipedia page
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[anecdotal – in the early 1990s, I chose to spend a winter as a ski bum/guide, living in Arabba, Dolomites, Sud Tyrol; I still remember the excellent days when I got to ski on the Marmolada]
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“PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: On 3 July 2022, a portion of the Marmolada glacier, near Punta Rocca, collapsed and caused the death of 11 mountaineers. This dramatic event had a considerable impact on the media, and authorities were concerned about the risk that other collapses might occur in this and other glaciers of the Dolomites, a well-renowned mountain region of the southeastern Alps and one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. [They] analyzed the possible causes of the collapse by developing a three-dimensional thermo-mechanical model. The analysis concluded that the collapse was caused by increased internal ice temperature and the development of a dense network of fractures, reducing the ice shear strength, with melting water that possibly contributed by increasing the basal pressure. [They] also showed that collapsing conditions can be identified with a simplified model version approximating the sliding basal surface as a plane with a slope equal to the surface slope. The developed approach can be used in hazard identification and risk analysis of mountain glaciers…”
#EngineeringGeology #RockMechanics #GlacierCollapse #RiskAssessment #italy #Dolomites #SudTyrol #glacier #melting #massmovement #risk #hazard #analysis #Marmolada #glaciercollapse #cryosphere #warning #mitigation #hazardassessment #alpine #climatechange #globalwarming #massloss #instability #model #modeling #thermomechanical #spatialanalysis #temperature #parameters #ice #shearstrength #water #hydrology #hydrography #basal #waterpressure #meltwater #fracturing #riskanalysis #mountainglaciers
#rockmechanics — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #rockmechanics, aggregated by home.social.
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Early-career researcher at #EGU26 Thursday:
**Julia Baumgarte**, Lekima Yakuden, and James Kirkpatrick
Contact Stress Distribution and Slip Stability on Experimental FaultsEGU26-313 | Orals | EMRP1.6
07 May, 08:55–09:05 (CEST) Room -2.31 -
Rock Friction Research Reframes Earthquake Mechanics
Scientists are studying how rock bonds break to understand earthquakes better. This new research affects how we predict and prepare for seismic events.
#EarthquakeScience, #RockMechanics, #FaultLines, #Seismology, #Geology
https://newsletter.tf/rock-friction-research-changes-earthquake-understanding/
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New research shows that the breaking of bonds between rocks, not just rubbing, is key to how earthquakes start. This is a new way to look at fault lines.
#EarthquakeScience, #RockMechanics, #FaultLines, #Seismology, #Geology
https://newsletter.tf/rock-friction-research-changes-earthquake-understanding/ -
Shaped cutters outperform conventional designs in hard limestone: ridge cutters reduce peak force by ~8.7% and MSE by ~34%, enabling faster ROP and more efficient drilling. #openaccess at https://shortlink.uk/1n8uL. #Geomechanics #rockmechanics #basin
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A new damage-mechanics geostress model shows how progressive rock damage reshapes wellbore stress and improves leakage prediction in deep formations. #openaccess at https://h7.cl/1i8hM #energy #rockmechanics #Geomechanics #Wellbore #drilling #Permeability
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Microcracks in rock (Petrology 💎)
Microcracks in rock, also known as microfractures and cracks, are spaces in rock with the longest length of 1000 μm and the other two dimensions of 10 μm. In general, the ratio of width to length of microcracks is between 10−3 to 10−5. Due to the scale, microcracks are observed using microscope to obtain their basic characteristics. Microcrack ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcracks_in_rock
#MicrocracksInRock #Petrology #RockMechanics #FractureMechanics