The Impact of surface perturbations on snow-slope stability

Measurements and observations by others indicate that a potential slab avalanche consists of a relatively cohesive slab of snow overlying a thin weak layer that coniains flaws where locally the shear stress from the overburden is not fully supported. Under favorable conditions, snow will shear strain-soften, which provides the basis for applying a slip-weakening model to examine the size of flaw needed to initiate sub-critical crack propagation along the weak layer. Using typical values for snow properties, the model predicts sub-critical crack growth can initiate from a relatively small flaw well before the shear stress from the overburden approaches the peak shear strength at tin-bed. The occurrence of small flaws or imperfections in the basal layer would explain field measurements which usually indicate that avalanching occurs before the applied shear stress exceeds the shear strength at the basal layer.Widespread slab-avalanche activity often increases significantly soon after the onset of rain on new snow. Measurements of temperature and mechanical properties show that only the upper 0.15 m or less of the slab has been altered at the time of avalanching; alterations at the sliding layer have not yet been detected. Results from the slip-weakening model indicate that the rain-induced alterations would reduce the size of flaw needed to initiate sub-critical crack growth by 10–20%. The observations and model results show clearly the importance of the slab properties; it is evident that both the slab and the weak layer act together to control slope stability. A further implication is that the stability of freshly deposited snow is often close to critical, because a relatively small surface perturbation is often sufficient to cause avalanching. This is not surprising, because it is well known from field observations that new snow on slopes should be treated with caution.