Thursday, August 09, 2007

Calving glacier hazard

Holidaymakers aboard a cruise ship, sailing off Svalbard, were injured when calving ice from the Horn Glacier crashed onto the side and deck of the ship. It would appear that most injuries were caused due to the ship listing due to the ice collapse. It is unusual for the calving of glacier ice to result in direct risk to humans in this way but direct risk to tourists occurred at the Miage Glacier in the Italian Alps in 1996 (Tinti et al 1996).

Further reading:
TINTI S., MARAMAI A. and CERUTTI A. V. 1999. The Miage Glacier in the Valley of Aosta (Western Alps, Italy) and the extraordinary detachment which occurred on August 9, 1996. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part A: Solid Earth and Geodesy, 24 (2), 157-161.
REYNOLDS, J. M. 1992. The identification and mitigation of glacier-related hazards: examples from the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Chapter 13 In: G. J. H. McCall, D. J. C. Laming and S. C. Scott (eds). Geohazards: Natural and Man-made. Chapman and Hall, London, 143-157.