The Critical Crack: How Long a Fracture in a Weak Snow Layer Must Grow Before a Slab Avalanche Runs by Itself
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Critical crack length for slab avalanche release from the anticrack energy model, computed across slope angles 25-50 degrees, slab thicknesses 0.2-1.0 m, densities 150-350 kg/m3 and weak-layer fracture energies 0.05-2 J/m2. The bare model gives initiation lengths of 0.48-11.08 m (median 2.21 m), overestimating propagation saw test values of 0.1-1 m by about a factor of two; the residual-friction term sets a hard arrest threshold at the friction angle (30 degrees baseline, 25-38 degrees across the plausible range), below which no crack runs away in shear. Skier loading, flat-terrain collapse driving (remote triggering), and a slab wave-speed bound on crack propagation (shear 54-117 m/s, plate 92-197 m/s) are also computed. Computed model, not field-measured.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225728143
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