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Felix Pfluger

@felix-pfl.bsky.social
29 followers 46 following 22 posts

Mechanics of permafrost-affected rock slope failures, release mechanisms of rock slides, glacier-permafrost interaction, alpine geomorphology. researcher @Tech. Univ. of Munich. orcid.org/0009-0003-4923-086X

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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
#cryohazard #landslide #glacier #Rasuwa #Nepal. The sudden detachment of a glacier-covered rock slope turned into a horrific disaster. Release mechanisms are likely associated with polythermal glacier shift, permafrost loss, and hydrostatic pressure build-up. cf esurf.copernicus.org/articles/13/...
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Today's ice aprons delineate areas that are likely to become localized hotspots of future rockfall activity and possibly even large slope failures. Our new study explores thermo-hydro-mechanical feedback mechanisms, demonstrating their efficacy in preparing permafrost rock slope failures.
esurf.copernicus.org
How ice apron loss and permafrost degradation promoted the Platteikogel rock slope failure: a thermo-mechanical reconstruction
Abstract. The Alpine cryosphere changes at unprecedented speed, affecting the thermal, hydrological, and mechanical state and behaviour of rock slopes. While numerous studies investigated singular dri...
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Dave Petley @davepetley.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
A sensational guest post by Derek Cronmiller, Theron Finley Panya Lipovsky and Jan Dettmer of the Yukon Geological Survey: Photos and Preliminary Observations from an Overview Flight of the 6 December 2025 Hubbard Glacier Earthquake, Yukon Territory, Canada. eos.org/thelandslide...
Rock avalanche below Mt King George triggered by the 6 December 2025 Hubbard Glacier Earthquake. The runout distance is 1.4 km.
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Remember to have this figure in memory when speaking to denialists is 2026. Everything else is just lies. Anything that contributes to these emissions will make harmonious coexistence on this planet impossible. Via @hausfath.bsky.social 🙏
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VAW Glaciology @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Ever wondered what a #glacier looks like from the inside? Last weekend our postdocs Christophe Ogier & Marin Kneib descended 60 m into a moulin on the #PlaineMorte glacier for surveying englacial melt channels. Photographer Pierre Jeanneret captured the stunning hidden world below ❄️🧗‍♂️🧊
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Kristian Svennevig @ksvenenvig.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Crazy (horizontal) runup from the large landslide into Tracy Arm fjord, SE Alaska. This is 20 km out the fjord and the wave reached up to 400 m into this side valley. notice how the vegetation was only wetted for the most part (pixels still red) and only the mouth of the river is destroyed.
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Tour Ronde (3793 m) north face used to be an entirely ice-covered slope not so long ago...! 🧊😰 See the situation this morning (📷 X. Cailhol) and in the 1960s (from famous Rebuffat's book 'les 100 plus belles...')
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Dr. Heather McFarlin @volcanoheather.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Copied from AEC post on X: Check out these amazing photos of the Tracy Arm Landslide! Thank you to Jacek Macelko for sharing these images, taken on Tuesday, August 12 from 3,500 ft. The pale triangle of the landslide scar stands out. 🧪⚒️🪨 1/2
Picture taken by pilot Jacek Maselko. Shows the South Sawyer Glacier, and in the background is the scar in the mountain  that the landslide originated from Picture taken by pilot Jacek Maselko. This one shows a different angle of the mountain that the landslide originated from, and also the water in the fjord that is now filled with debris. The terminus of the glacier is also visible, and is covered with rock and debris. Picture taken by pilot Jacek Maselko. Another angle of the mountain that the landslide originated from, with a different view of the debris-filled fjord and the terminus of the glacier. The light-colored part of the mountain is the scar. Pilot states they were flying at about 3500 ft. Picture taken by pilot Jacek Maselko. Another angle of the scar on the mountainside and the debris-covered glacier terminus. Pilot was flying at about 3500 ft.
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Dave Petley @davepetley.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
A new paper (Kharismalatri, Gomi & Sidle 2025) in the journal Natural Hazards uses the concepts of the inflow angle and the channel gradient to examine the behaviour of large landslides after failure. It show that those two measurements predict the behaviour of most slopes. eos.org/thelandslide...
The relationship between the inflow angle, and the channel gradient , from the study of large landslides by Kharismalatri, Gomi & Sidle (2025).
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Stunning paraglacial landsliding on Brouillard Glacier today! 😱 (Italian side of Mont Blanc) 🎥 David Picchedda / IG
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Pasterze (Hohe Tauern, AT) 1938 | 2025 Staggering loss of volume o the largest Austrian glacier... still for few days!🔥 When the (now tiny) icefall breaks up, it will no longer be the largest ice imass in Austria! @landervt.bsky.social
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
👏 Mediterranean marine sediment cores database: unlocking paleoclimatic signals for the last 20,000 years www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Mediterranean marine sediment cores database: unlocking paleoclimatic signals for the last 20,000 years - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Mediterranean marine sediment cores database: unlocking paleoclimatic signals for the last 20,000 years
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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland! From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022. Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Several mudslides occurred in Gschnitz on Monday evening! 🌊 100 trapped people from the village and three mountain huts had to be evacuated by helicopter by the Army. The extent of destruction is enormous. Events of such intensity are increasing! 😱 Source www.instagram.com/p/DLjemMiikK...
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Mehrere Murabgänge in Gschnitz, Tirol, und Umgebung. Montag nachmittags nach Gewitter mit starken Niederschlägen. Einige Bilder, welche das Ausmaẞ zeigen - tirol.orf.at/stories/3311.... Ohne Personenschäden🤞
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Recent article and intense photography by #NationalGeographic on #permafrost -related hazards in the Swiss Alps, 2025 - covering the tragedy at #Blatten and potential future failure at #SpitzeStei. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...
nationalgeographic.com
A Swiss village was buried under a mountain. This town could be next.
In the past century, scientists have observed more rockfalls and avalanches in the Alps, a looming threat to nearby villages.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
The ongoing marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea is one of the the largest marine anomalies observed globally
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
We are losing climate records that we will never get back, and Human is entirely responsible for this! 🔥 🧊 Triangle du Tacul ice was dated in 2017 at 700 yr BP in surface and 6300 yr BP at 60 cm depth! And all melted to bedrock between 2022 and 2024! 😱 Source L. Ravanel/X. Cailhol 🙏
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
[1/2] Geomorphology at Oberreintal (GER). Ancient rock slide deposits daming glacial shaped valley (> 200 000 m2, [47.41008 11.10601]). Headscarp @ middle left. Debris cones indicate high rockfall activity today. The mountaineering hut Oberreintalhütte (circel) is founded on the rock slide deposits.
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
[2/2] Geomorphology at Oberreintal, Schüsselkarspitze in the middle left, geological unit ist Wetterstein limestone. Deposits of winter rockfall are deflected by morphology. Trace is marked by the reddish rock
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Gilles Mazet-Roux @gmazet.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
This morning @lastquake.bsky.social reports a magnitude 4.5 earthquake on the SE coast of #Greenland. www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake_i... This is probably not an earthquake, but rather a huge landslide in a fjord caused by thawing #permafrost. To be confirmed ...
emsc-csem.org
Earthquake= Magnitude 4.5 - NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN - 2025-06-21 07:28:00.9 UTC
Earthquake information= Magnitude: 4.5, Region: NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, Date time: 2025-06-21 07:28:00.9 UTC, Location: 64.5038 ; -39.8343, Depth: 10 km.
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
#Rockfall inventory of Eastern Alps: > 75% of all rockfalls originate from #permafrost rock; 40% of documented rockfalls occurred in recently deglaciated areas since 1969! Check out the work of colleagues from @bokuvienna.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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Jan Beutel @janbeutel.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
A long series of similar rockfall/rockslide events in Switzerland now has another BIG dot in the upper right hand corner:
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
[1/2] Warming permafrost promotes rock slope failures of preconditioned slopes by reducing mechanical properties such as shear strength, fracture toughness, and tensile strength of rock. Recent rock slides strongly influenced by permafrost warming are #Blatten (CH), #Fluchthorn (AT)
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
[2/2] Our model of the Fluchthorn rock slide in 2023 suggests failure upon permafrost temperatures approaching 0°C -> Modelled using laboratory deviated temperature-dependent shear parameters for discontinuities; failure planes are pre-defined by geology
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Felix Pfluger @felix-pfl.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
How the shift of warm ice in #polythermal #glacier triggers #Bergsturz -sized rock slides: i.e. Bliggspitze (AT), Piz #Scerscen (CH) -> Keyword: buildup of hydrostatic pressure; new failure mechanism proposed esurf.copernicus.org/articles/13/...
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