Avalanche/landslide Researchers survey the landslide area in Blatten VS
Using various sensors, researchers in the landslide area in Blatten in Valais have collected high-resolution data from the demolition site and the debris cone. They are intended to help predict how quickly the ice in the debris will melt.
18.06.2025, 17:02
SDA
"At the moment, we are mainly interested in how much ice there is in the debris cone - and where exactly it is located," Andreas Hüni from the University of Zurich (UZH) was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the university on Wednesday. Among other things, this will determine where, how strongly and how quickly the debris cone will settle.
To predict how quickly the ice will melt, it is important to know whether the ice is covered with rocks and debris. These heat up more quickly in the sun and cause the underlying ice to melt more quickly.
Other data collected can be used to calculate the volume and volume changes of the debris cone more precisely.
For future events
The evaluation of the data will now keep numerous researchers busy for a while, wrote UZH.
Among other things, the analysis of the data should also help in coping with future events. "With global warming, it is likely that such events will occur more frequently in the Alps in the future," said Hüni. The researchers therefore wanted to develop methods that would enable such data to be analyzed quickly.
UZH researchers Hüni and Marius Vögtli took the images from an airplane. They used three different measuring devices: the AVIRIS-4 spectrometer, a laser scanner (LiDAR) and a high-resolution photogrammetric camera.
