On the initial velocity of the glacial-stone material movement, the air-blast, the nature of the carrier medium and the range of action of sudden explosion-like gas-dynamic surge of the Kolka glacier

Abstract

Relevance. The initial mass velocity of the compact movement of the ejected glacial-stone material of the Kolka glacier, reached at the stage of gas acceleration in the epicentral zone of the sudden explosion-like gas-dynamic surge of the glacier, was about 300 m/s. Exactly such high values of the initial mass velocity of the surge of the main amount of glacial-stone material that determined the possibility of the formation of an accompanying ejection of the air-blast, which had a significant intensity even at a great distance from the surge epicenter (about 15 km). The nature of the carrier medium for the entire Genaldon avalanche flow was aerial within the transit zone distinguished primarily according this character along its entire length of many kilometers; and for the initial and main stages of the surge the nature was the same outside this zone (up to the Skalisty (Rocky) Ridge). The range of action of the sudden explosion-like gas-dynamic surge of the Kolka glacier on September 20, 2002, was certainly not limited only by the reservoir of the Kolka glacier or the Kolka cirque, as it is sometimes supposed, but captured the vast territory of the Kolka and Genaldon gorges and was limited (and even then not completely) only by the insurmountable mechanical barrier of the Skalisty (Rocky Ridge). Aim. In terms of the comparison with explosion-like directional gas-dynamic surges of glaciers, the article considers an issue of the history of study of directional volcanic explosions determined half a century earlier. Methods. The analysis of the available data and the existing approaches for their assessments was carried out. Results. The results of the work show the enormous power of explosion-like directed gas-dynamic surges of the Kolka glacier, which are quite comparable in this respect with large directed volcanic explosions.