Abstract
A large rock avalanche fell from the slope below Hillary Ridge of Aoraki/Mount Cook at 21:32 (New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) = UTC + 12 h) on Monday 14 July 2014. About 0.9 million m3 of indurated greywacke collapsed from a >60° slope at 43.6165°S 170.1427°E between 2600 and 2920 m, without warning or apparent trigger. The avalanche of rock debris crossed Noeline Glacier névé, entraining snow and ice debris, before passing through an icefall, accelerating down steepening slopes and ended on Hooker Glacier. A small mountaineering shelter sited on a topographic high within the avalanche path was damaged but not completely destroyed. Covering a total fall of 1600 m and travel distance of 3.9 km, the avalanche angle of reach was 24°. The deposit of rock, snow and ice debris covers 1.4 million m2. Airborne dust travelled at least 6 km. The event was recorded by the national seismograph network, as a ML2.6 earthquake with the strongly emergent characteristics of a large avalanche.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Jim Campbell (Helicopter Line Mount Cook), Department of Conservation (Mike Davies, Dave Dittmer and Don Bogie), Geoff Clitheroe, Sally Dellow, Bill Fry, Santanu Misra and Belinda Smith-Lyttle (GNS Science). Air temperature and rainfall data were provided by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Sciences (NIWA) though the climate database (http://cliflo.niwa.co.nz). The majority of the work was funded and has been released by Department of Conservation, supplemented through the New Zealand GeoNet project (http://www.geonet.org.nz/) immediate response function fulfilled by GNS Science, and by the Hazard Platform. Thoughtful comments and suggestions were provided by Simon Loew (associate editor), Alexander Strom and two anonymous reviewers.
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Cox, S.C., McSaveney, M.J., Spencer, J. et al. Rock avalanche on 14 July 2014 from Hillary Ridge, Aoraki/Mount Cook, New Zealand. Landslides 12, 395–402 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0556-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-015-0556-7