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GEOREF RECORD

Meteorological antecedents to debris flow in southwestern British Columbia; some case studies

Michael Church and Michael J. Miles
Meteorological antecedents to debris flow in southwestern British Columbia; some case studies (in Debris flows/avalanches; process, recognition, and mitigation, John E. Costa (editor) and Gerald F. Wieczorek (editor))
Reviews in Engineering Geology (1987) 7: 63-79

Abstract

Development within the mountains of coastal British Columbia has recently increased the exposure of people and facilities to debris flows. Attempts to specify weather conditions under which debris flows are apt to occur--such as threshold precipitation-appear not to work because of the highly contingent nature of the flows. Debris must exist in unstable position in or near the channel, and conditions prior to the flow may strongly condition the necessary trigger to mobilize it. Events have been observed in the following circumstances: locally concentrated rainfall with high antecedent moisture and no snowmelt (the "classical case"); uniformly distributed, moderate rainfall with snowmelt; low intensity rainfall and heavy snow-melt; and heavy rainfall onto deeply frozen, but thawing, ground. A weather-based warning threshold for the British Columbia coast would be fairly complex. At present, such a system would include the substantial probability of issuing nuisance predictions of nonoccurring events. There is an indication that the incidence of debris flows has increased since 1980. Reasons why this might be so are investigated. Aside from the occurrance of four very wet years since then, no clear meteorologic correlation can be made.


ISSN: 0080-2018
EISSN: 2169-799X
Coden: GAEGA4
Serial Title: Reviews in Engineering Geology
Serial Volume: 7
Title: Meteorological antecedents to debris flow in southwestern British Columbia; some case studies
Title: Debris flows/avalanches; process, recognition, and mitigation
Author(s): Church, MichaelMiles, Michael J.
Author(s): Costa, John E.editor
Author(s): Wieczorek, Gerald F.editor
Affiliation: Univ. B.C., Dep. Geogr., Vancouver, BC, Canada
Pages: 63-79
Published: 1987
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
Meeting name: Engineering Geology Division and the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division of the Geological Society of America
Meeting location: Reno, NV, USA, United States
Meeting date: 19841105Nov. 5, 1984
References: 13
Accession Number: 1988-018898
Categories: Engineering geology
Document Type: Serial Conference document
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. 5 tables, sketch maps
N48°25'00" - N60°00'00", W139°00'00" - W114°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: M. Miles and Assoc., CAN, Canada
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data supplied by the Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, United States
Update Code: 1988
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