The Skuta Glacier in the Kamnik–Savinja Alps (in northern Slovenia) is one of the two remaining glaciers in Slovenia. It is located in a cirque oriented toward the northwest, which shields it from ...sunlight for most of the year. The glacier lies at an average elevation of 2070m. In recent years, its average area has measured around 1.5 hectares. Monitoring of the glacier has been performed since 1946. In 1962, regular photographing of the glacier with various cameras started from various non-fixed standpoints. Using the single image interactive orientation acquisition method, in which a single photograph is compared with the projection of a modern digital terrain model, seventeen photographs covering the period from 1970 to 2015 were used to acquire the 3D-perimeters of the glacier. The data shows that the elevation of glacier’s upper edge decreased by approximately 40m in the last half-century. Changes in the glacier’s area and average upper edge elevation were compared with average annual temperature and maximum seasonal snow cover depth.
The Triglav glacier is situated in the Julian Alps in the northwest of Slovenia. Presented are the results of investigations and measurements of the Triglav glacier done between the years 1999 and ...2012. It was for the first time during this period that its depth was measured by means of georadar. Its area was measured on a yearly basis by means of various land surveying methods which are stated in detail. We explained the dynamics of the glacier’s shrinking on the grounds of weather conditions of each respective year. Due to the glacier’s concave form, snow in the past few years remained all until the late summer, particularly in the central and lower sections of the glacier. If such weather conditions continue, and the amount of winter precipitation further increases, the remainder of the Triglav glacier, though small in size, will continue to exist for a few years.
Geografski inštitut Antona Melika ZRC SAZU že več kot šest desetletij opravlja redne meritve Triglavskega ledenika in ledenika pod Skuto. Oba ledenika se v zadnjem desetletju in pol intenzivno ...krčita. S krčenjem ledenika pod Skuto prihaja vse bolj do izraza pomen njegove senčne lege na vznožju okoliških ostenij. S primerjavo dinamike krčenja ledenika in izbranih meteoroloških kazalcev primerljivih opazovalnih postaj izpostavljamo pomen in stopnjo vplivanja podnebnih sprememb na ta, najbolj jugovzhodno ležeč ledenik na območju Alp.
Avalanches cause the highest number of fatalities in the Alps, threatening many areas and facilities, as well as transport and communications infrastructure. An integral part of avalanche protection ...is risk communication and warning, which is within the domain of the avalanche service of the Slovenian Environmental Agency. As part of the ‘Crossrisk Project’, the ZRC SAZU Anton Melik Geographical Institute has prepared a ‘Snow Field Manual’ which will allow for the standardised collection of field data on snow, snow cover and avalanches. This data forms the basis for determining the current avalanche hazard level. The ‘Snow Card’ supplement, which is an integral part of the manual, contains a condensed view of the most important contents and also includes two forms (there are a total of 14 forms in the manual) for entering the snow cover cross-section data. It also includes instructions for preparing and performing cross-sections of snow cover and avalanche tests. All information is provided along with a clear explanation key. Finally, a description of typical avalanche problems and types of avalanche hazards follows. The full applicability of the Snow Field Manual and the Snow Card is achieved by entering the digital data of the cross-section and the avalanche test into the appropriate web application.
Geografski inštitut Antona Melika ZRC SAZU že več kot šest desetletij opravlja redne meritve Triglavskega ledenika in ledenika pod Skuto. Oba ledenika se v zadnjem desetletju in pol intenzivno ...krčita. S krčenjem ledenika pod Skuto prihaja vse bolj do izraza pomen njegove senčne lege na vznožju okoliških ostenij. S primerjavo dinamike krčenja ledenika in izbranih meteoroloških kazalcev primerljivih opazovalnih postaj izpostavljamo pomen in stopnjo vplivanja podnebnih sprememb na ta, najbolj jugovzhodno ležeč ledenik na območju Alp.
The retreat of ice shelves and glaciers over the last century provides unequivocal evidence of recent global warming. Glacierets (miniature glaciers) and ice patches are important components of the ...cryosphere that highlight the global retreat of glaciers, but knowledge of their behaviour prior to the Little Ice Age is lacking. Here, we report the uranium–thorium age of subglacial carbonate deposits from a recently exposed surface previously occupied by the disappearing Triglav Glacier (southeastern European Alps) that may elucidate the glacier's presence throughout the entire Holocene. The ages suggest the deposits' possible preservation since the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas. These thin deposits, formed by regelation, are easily eroded if exposed during previous Holocene climatic optima. The age data indicate the glacier's present unprecedented level of retreat since the Last Glacial Maximum and the potential of subglacial carbonates as additional proxies to highlight the extraordinary nature of the current global climatic changes.
Snow season 2012/13 in SloveniaSlovenia is also among the countries which are endangered by avalanches. They cause on a yearly average 1–2 victims, mainly in the highlands. Once, the victims were ...mostly locals, but within the last decades, it is now predominantly mountaineers. To avoid avalanche accidents, prevention measurements are very important. Their consistent part is also the flashback of each snow season. Since there is no avalanche service in Slovenia - its annual task is also the preparation of such an overview, we decided do it within the frame of a project NH-WF/Natural Hazards without Frontiers. In this, between years 2012 and 2014, we regularly prepared and published an experimental local avalanche bulletin for Middle Karavanks (northern Slovenia). Along with the work on this bulletin, we realized, how important cooperation is between the different stakeholders within the field of avalanche protection. This edition is the first complete overview of avalanche events and incidents in the snow season – from a weather review, through all the overall characteristics of snow seasons and avalanche events, as well as a methodically unified analysis of all fatal incidents. We added, at the end, a reflection about the season, made by an avalanche practitioner and a short presentation of a NH-WF project.
Avalanche accidents, particularly those resulting in fatalities, attract substantial attention from policy makers and organizations, as well as from the media and the public. Placing fatal accidents ...in a wider context requires long-term and robust statistics. However, avalanche accident statistics, like most other accident statistics, often rely on relatively small sample sizes, with single multi-fatality events and random effects having a potentially large influence on summary and trend statistics. Additionally, trend interpretation is challenging because statistics are generally explored at a national level, and studies vary in both the period covered and the methods. Here, we addressed these issues by combining the avalanche fatality data from the European Alps (Austria, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland) for three different periods between 1937 and 2015 and applying the same data analysis methodology. During the last four decades, about 100 people lost their lives each year in the Alps. Despite considerable inter-annual variation, this number has remained relatively constant in the last decades. However, exploring fatality numbers by the location of the victims at the time of the avalanche revealed two partly opposing trends. The number of fatalities in controlled terrain (settlements and transportation corridors) has decreased significantly since the 1970s. In contrast to this development, the number of fatalities in uncontrolled terrain (mostly recreational accidents) almost doubled between the 1960s and 1980s and has remained relatively stable since then, despite a strong increase in the number of winter backcountry recreationists. Corresponding to these trends, the proportion of fatalities in uncontrolled terrain increased from 72 to 97 %. These long-term trends were evident in most national statistics. Further, the temporal correlation between subsets of the Alpine fatality data, and between some of the national statistics, suggests that time series covering a longer period may be used as an indicator for missing years in shorter-duration datasets. Finally, statistics from countries with very few incidents should be compared to, or analysed together with, those from neighbouring countries exhibiting similar economical and structural developments and characteristics.
In comparison to other disasters, snow avalanches endanger only a small part of surface of Slovenia, but they are problematic mostly because of their spatial and temporal unpredictability. Focusing ...on alpine landscape, the author studies the natural geographical characteristics of snow avalanches.
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