Short communication: Runout of rock avalanches limited by basal friction but controlled by fragmentation

Haug, Øystein T.; Rosenau, Matthias; Rudolf, Michael; Leever, Karen; Oncken, Onno

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-665-2021

Articles | Volume 9, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-665-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-665-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 3

Short communication

|

23 Jun 2021

Short communication |

| 23 Jun 2021

Short communication: Runout of rock avalanches limited by basal friction but controlled by fragmentation

Øystein T. Haug, Matthias Rosenau, Michael Rudolf, Karen Leever, and Onno Oncken

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Final revised paper (published on 23 Jun 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 30 Oct 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review_Report', Anonymous Referee #1, 30 Nov 2020
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Matthias Rosenau, 25 Mar 2021
RC2: 'Review Short communication: Runout of rock avalanches limited by basal friction but controlled by fragmentation', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Mar 2021
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Matthias Rosenau, 25 Mar 2021
EC1: 'EC Comment on esurf-2020-76', Michael Krautblatter, 23 Mar 2021
- AC3: 'Reply on EC1', Matthias Rosenau, 25 Mar 2021

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Matthias Rosenau on behalf of the Authors (25 Mar 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (17 May 2021) by Michael Krautblatter

ED: Publish as is (18 May 2021) by Andreas Lang (Editor)

AR by Matthias Rosenau on behalf of the Authors (27 May 2021) Manuscript

Short summary

The runout of rock avalanches scales with their volume but also shows a considerable variation for avalanches with similar volumes. Here we show that besides size-dependent weakening mechanisms, fragmentation can account for the observed variability in runout. We use laboratory-scale experimental avalanches to simulate and analyse the role of fragmentation. We find that fragmentation consumes energy but also increases avalanche mobility. It does so systematically and predictably.