Theme: Glacier

Laboratorio a Cielo aperto delle Grandes Jorasses per lo sviluppo di tecniche di monitoraggio di processi di instabilità in ambito glaciale

Climate change has a powerful impact on high-altitude Alpine sectors and glaciers. This impact often turns into an increase in instability processes that can lead to very high-risk conditions. These risk conditions can significantly affect the usability of areas characterized by intense tourist flows, making risk management very ...

The strong retreat of the Italian glaciers

Between the late 19th and early 21st century, in the Alps the average air temperature has increased by about 2 °C, more than twice the increase in temperature in the northern hemisphere, of 0.8 °C. In the same period, precipitation showed a tendency towards an increase in the northern part of the Alps, and a tendency towards a decrease in the southern sector of the Alps. Since the end of the Little Ice Age (about 1850), glaciers in the ...

We monitor the Planpincieux Glacier, along the Italian side of the Grandes Jorasses, Aosta Valley

Glaciers are typical of the Alpine landscape, and an important source of water. Undoubtedly fascinating, glaciers are very complex and yet surprisingly poorly known. In the Alps, many studies focus on the volumetric changes of glaciers, proving their almost systematic reduction in the current climatic period. Little is known about the daily behaviour of Alpine glaciers. This is partly due to the inhospitable and not easily accessible ...

Aerofototeca

The CNR IRPI archive preserves 170.000 aerial photographs useful for stereoscopic applications. Most part of those photographs were taken during a number of surveys carried out between 1954 and 2005 in tha Padan Plain, Triveneto and Liguria (Northern Italy) but some examples date from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In this documentation the effects of many floods and landslides events can be observed. In particular, we would mention the aerial ...

Analysis and monitoring of Planpincieux Glacier, Monte Bianco massif (AO)

The Planpincieux Glacier is one of the glaciers that characterize the Italian side of the massif of the Grandes Jorasses. It is considered a temperate glacier and its front is currently located near a morphological step that determines a strong propensity to the activation of frequent ice falls in particular during the summer. These phenomena are typical of this glacier, but its particular asset may cause, as already occurred in the past, to ...

Glacial hazards in the western Alps

The project is included in Operative Program of the European cross-border territorial cooperation "Alcotra 2007-2013". It brings together specialized scientific expertise Italian and French that deal to study the mountain and its dangerousness. It is divided into a part of studies conducted on the entire framework of the Western Alps and in actions on the pilot sites identified by the ...