Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries

GM Geomorphology

The 2021 Virtual Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (vOSPP) Award is awarded to Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries for the poster/PICO entitled:

Resolving pre-collapse slope motion of the February 2021 Chamoli rock-ice avalanche via feature tracking of optical satellite imagery and DEM differencing (Van Wyk de Vries, M.; Bhushan, S.; Shean, D.; Berthier, E.; Deschamps-Berger, C.; Gascoin, S.; Jacquemart, M.; Kääb, A.; Shugar, D.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Max Van Wyk de Vries is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota, where he is working on the interactions between glaciers and the surrounding earth system with Dr. Wickert and Dr. Ito. The project combines data from the sedimentary record (proglacial lakes cores) with satellite data to gain insight into the drivers of glacier change in Patagonia. He is particularly involved with the building of new remote sensing tools to assess changes in glacier flow dynamics and the interactions between landslides and glaciers.
In this EGU presentation, an international team of scientists worked closely together to assess the conditions of the deadly February 2021 Chamoli landslide prior to its collapse. Remotely sensed displacement measurements and repeat digital elevation models show that the collapsed bloc moved tens of metres prior to failure. Despite this, we highlight some important challenges in using these datasets for hazard monitoring – particularly related to high background noise levels. Preliminary findings from this work were published in Shugar et al., 2021 (Science; doi.org/10.1126/science.abh4455).

Publication resulting from the award

Van Wyk de Vries, M., Bhushan, S., Jacquemart, M., Deschamps-Berger, C., Berthier, E., Gascoin, S., Shean, D. E., Shugar, D. H., and Kääb, A.: Pre-collapse motion of the February 2021 Chamoli rock–ice avalanche, Indian Himalaya, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3309–3327, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-3309-2022, 2022.