A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods
Ongoing atmospheric warming has accelerated glacier mass loss in many mountain regions worldwide. Glacier lakes trap part of the glacial meltwater and have increased by about 50 % in number and area since the 1990s. Some of these glacier lakes may empty catastrophically and pose hazards to mountain...
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2023
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:930cee6994554fd59f7bb0ff90cc6e9b 2023-07-30T04:03:38+02:00 A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods N. Lützow G. Veh O. Korup 2023-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 https://doaj.org/article/930cee6994554fd59f7bb0ff90cc6e9b EN eng Copernicus Publications https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/2983/2023/essd-15-2983-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3508 https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3516 doi:10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 1866-3508 1866-3516 https://doaj.org/article/930cee6994554fd59f7bb0ff90cc6e9b Earth System Science Data, Vol 15, Pp 2983-3000 (2023) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 2023-07-16T00:36:37Z Ongoing atmospheric warming has accelerated glacier mass loss in many mountain regions worldwide. Glacier lakes trap part of the glacial meltwater and have increased by about 50 % in number and area since the 1990s. Some of these glacier lakes may empty catastrophically and pose hazards to mountain communities, infrastructure, and habitats. Such glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have caused millions of dollars of damages and fatalities and are one of many concerns about future changes in the magnitude, frequency, and impacts of processes of a shrinking mountain cryosphere. Consistently compiled inventories are thus vital to assess regional and local trends in GLOF occurrence, hazard, and risk. To this end, we studied 769 literature and internet sources and developed a standardized database with 57 attributes that describe and quantify the location, dam type, size, timing, and impacts of GLOFs in nine glaciated mountain regions. Our GLOF inventory also includes details about the lake area before and after the outburst for 391 cases that we manually mapped from optical satellite images since 1984. In total, we compiled 3151 reported GLOFs that occurred in 27 countries between 850 and 2022 CE. Most GLOFs have been reported in NW North America (26 %) and Iceland (19 %). However, the reporting density in our inventory varies. During the 20th century alone, the number of yearly documented GLOFs increased 6-fold. Less than one-quarter of all reported cases feature hydrodynamic characteristics such as flood peak discharge or volume or estimates of loss and damage. Our inventory more than doubles the number of reported GLOFs in a previous global inventory, though gaps in attributes remain. Our data collection process emphasizes the support of local experts in contributing previously undocumented cases, and we recommend applying protocols when reporting new cases. The global database on historic GLOFs is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7330344 (Lützow and Veh, 2023a) and regularly updated at ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Earth System Science Data 15 7 2983 3000 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
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Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 N. Lützow G. Veh O. Korup A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Ongoing atmospheric warming has accelerated glacier mass loss in many mountain regions worldwide. Glacier lakes trap part of the glacial meltwater and have increased by about 50 % in number and area since the 1990s. Some of these glacier lakes may empty catastrophically and pose hazards to mountain communities, infrastructure, and habitats. Such glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have caused millions of dollars of damages and fatalities and are one of many concerns about future changes in the magnitude, frequency, and impacts of processes of a shrinking mountain cryosphere. Consistently compiled inventories are thus vital to assess regional and local trends in GLOF occurrence, hazard, and risk. To this end, we studied 769 literature and internet sources and developed a standardized database with 57 attributes that describe and quantify the location, dam type, size, timing, and impacts of GLOFs in nine glaciated mountain regions. Our GLOF inventory also includes details about the lake area before and after the outburst for 391 cases that we manually mapped from optical satellite images since 1984. In total, we compiled 3151 reported GLOFs that occurred in 27 countries between 850 and 2022 CE. Most GLOFs have been reported in NW North America (26 %) and Iceland (19 %). However, the reporting density in our inventory varies. During the 20th century alone, the number of yearly documented GLOFs increased 6-fold. Less than one-quarter of all reported cases feature hydrodynamic characteristics such as flood peak discharge or volume or estimates of loss and damage. Our inventory more than doubles the number of reported GLOFs in a previous global inventory, though gaps in attributes remain. Our data collection process emphasizes the support of local experts in contributing previously undocumented cases, and we recommend applying protocols when reporting new cases. The global database on historic GLOFs is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7330344 (Lützow and Veh, 2023a) and regularly updated at ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
N. Lützow G. Veh O. Korup |
author_facet |
N. Lützow G. Veh O. Korup |
author_sort |
N. Lützow |
title |
A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
title_short |
A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
title_full |
A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
title_fullStr |
A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
title_full_unstemmed |
A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
title_sort |
global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 https://doaj.org/article/930cee6994554fd59f7bb0ff90cc6e9b |
genre |
glacier Iceland |
genre_facet |
glacier Iceland |
op_source |
Earth System Science Data, Vol 15, Pp 2983-3000 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/2983/2023/essd-15-2983-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3508 https://doaj.org/toc/1866-3516 doi:10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 1866-3508 1866-3516 https://doaj.org/article/930cee6994554fd59f7bb0ff90cc6e9b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023 |
container_title |
Earth System Science Data |
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15 |
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7 |
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2983 |
op_container_end_page |
3000 |
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