Authors : Giribabu Dandabathula, Subham Roy, Shabana Syal, Sahibnoor Kaur, Shwetambari Satpute, Satyanarayana Pondari, Apurba Kumar Bera, Sushil Kumar Srivastav
DOI : 10.1007/s10346-024-02446-y
Volume : 22
Issue : 4
Year : 2025
Page No : 1167-1179
The Himalayan region frequently exhibits natural hazards and disasters. Technical records of these events’ causal agents may help to model and forecast futuristic incidents. On 30 June 2024, a snow avalanche triggered just before sunrise on the Kedarnath south face of the Indian Himalayas, depositing its runout at Chorabari’s Companion glacier. This research investigates the factors contributing to the avalanche’s formation, triggering, and motion. To achieve the objectives of this study, remote sensing data, meteorological variables from the ERA5 dataset, and terrain characteristics from a digital elevation model were harnessed. In addition, recordings of videos and photos of the incident shared via social media were used in this research to understand the situation on the ground. The region likely experienced isotropic climatic conditions, at higher ridges occasionally receiving sparse snowfall, thus forming fresh snow. This study derived the factors that triggered this avalanche, such as a sudden rise in the region’s temperature and the higher ridges of the Kedarnath southeast face being in direct sight of the Sun rays. The type of avalanche that happened was a powder avalanche, which plummeted downhill while sweeping along more and more snow on its way for a distance of 3.25 km. The terrain that supported the avalanche motion has slopes downhill varying between 30° and 75° with southeast and south aspect walls. The avalanche started at ~ 6350 m and terminated at ~ 4190 m, where the slope was less than 15°. The research appreciates the usability of in situ data like photos and videos shared through social media; social media data, available during natural hazards and disasters like those discussed in this research, can complement the earth observation data for geospatial analysis.