AT5-3: Cryospheric hazards: an additional component for glaciological risk management.

Conveners: Felipe Ugalde Peralta, Cedomir Marangunic. Geoestudios. fugalde@geoestudios.cl

Description: Climate change has impacted the cryosphere in ways varying from shrinking ice sheets, permafrost degradation and glacier retreat to declining snowpack. Rising global temperatures have favoured instabilities in glaciers and permafrost-bearing slopes. The uninterrupted and rapid retreat of glaciers leads, among other things, to the generation of lakes with precarious closures, which constitute a hazard by favouring catastrophic draining. The rise of the zero-degree isotherm height modifies the thermal condition of glaciers, making them more prone to suffer total or partial detachment, as occurred in the boreal summer of 2022. These phenomena tend to be common, but with recurrences that are difficult to assess; their understanding and prevention require increasingly detailed studies.

Given the increased public affluence to high mountain environments for recreation, housing, and industry, it becomes crucial incorporating cryospheric hazards into risk management, aiming to enhance awareness and education about the occurrence of these hazards. This session seeks contributions that address the hazards and risks of the Cryosphere in Chile and the world, from event reporting and analysis to mitigation measures.