Sentinel-2A captures a giant ice avalanche in Tibet

In English Sentinel-2

Olivier Hagolle, 25 août 2016

The Nature News website reported yesterday on a massive ice avalanche that happened in Rutog, Tibet, on 17 July 2016. This ice avalanche killed 9 people and may be one the largest ever observed. The ice and rock mixture spread over 6 km from the collapse point up to the Aru Co lake shoreline.

Sentinel-2A image of the Rutog ice avalanche acquired on 21-Jul-2016 (4 days after the event). Click on the image to see at full resolution (1 pixel = 10m).

Nothing escapes from Sentinels! I used the Sentinel-2A image above to digitalize the avalanche extent and found that the avalanche covered a total area of 8.8 km², close to the value that was indicated in several news websites (10 km²).

A closer view of the avalanche site is available here: http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/07/20/3441s934928.htm

[edit] The second episode about this avalanche is here.

Plus d'actualités

Mo Chhu, dzong of Punakha.

Tracking the sediment plume of the 29 October 2026 GLOF in Bhutan

A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred on 29 Oct in northern Bhutan, creating a debris flow in the Mo Chhu valley, Gasa district. The exact cause of the GLOF is still unclear but we know that it originates from Sintaphu Tsho, a moraine-dammed lake at an elevation of about 4500 m. This event has […]

Adjacency effects, or how pixels from the entire region can skew your measurements

=> Neighborhood issues also exist in Earth observation. And in a sense, they are even much more serious than on a social level, since neighbors located more than 30 km away can cause interference! Fortunately, we have the means to correct these problems without resorting to law enforcement—just using algorithms. This entire article is based […]

Les effets d’environnement, ou comment les pixels de toute la région peuvent perturber vos mesures.

=> Les problèmes de voisinage existent aussi en observation de la terre. Et en un sens, ils sont même beaucoup plus graves que sur le plan social, puisque vos voisins situés à plus de 30 km peuvent pour perturber ! Heureusement, nous disposons de moyens pour corriger ces problèmes, sans recourir à la force publique, […]

Rechercher