Abstract
Abstract. Ongoing atmospheric warming has accelerated glacier mass loss in
many mountain regions worldwide. Glacier lakes trap part of the glacial
meltwater and have increased by about 50 % in number and area since the 1990s.
Some of these glacier lakes may empty catastrophically and pose hazards to
mountain communities, infrastructure, and habitats. Such glacier lake
outburst floods (GLOFs) have caused millions of dollars of damages and
fatalities and are one of many concerns about future changes in the
magnitude, frequency, and impacts of processes of a shrinking mountain
cryosphere. Consistently compiled inventories are thus vital to assess
regional and local trends in GLOF occurrence, hazard, and risk. To this end,
we studied 769 literature and internet sources and developed a standardized
database with 57 attributes that describe and quantify the location, dam
type, size, timing, and impacts of GLOFs in nine glaciated mountain regions.
Our GLOF inventory also includes details about the lake area before and
after the outburst for 391 cases that we manually mapped from optical
satellite images since 1984. In total, we compiled 3151 reported GLOFs that
occurred in 27 countries between 850 and 2022 CE. Most GLOFs have been
reported in NW North America (26 %) and Iceland (19 %). However, the
reporting density in our inventory varies. During the 20th century
alone, the number of yearly documented GLOFs increased 6-fold. Less than
one-quarter of all reported cases feature hydrodynamic characteristics such
as flood peak discharge or volume or estimates of loss and damage. Our
inventory more than doubles the number of reported GLOFs in a previous
global inventory, though gaps in attributes remain. Our data collection
process emphasizes the support of local experts in contributing previously
undocumented cases, and we recommend applying protocols when reporting new
cases. The global database on historic GLOFs is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7330344 (Lützow and Veh,
2023a) and regularly updated at http://glofs.geoecology.uni-potsdam.de/ (last access: 9 May 2023).
Funder
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
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