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Avalanche crown‐depth distributions
Author(s) -
Bair Edward H.,
Dozier Jeff,
Birkeland Karl W.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl035788
Subject(s) - statistical physics , geology , scaling , snow , fractal , range (aeronautics) , self organized criticality , crown (dentistry) , fractal dimension , criticality , distribution (mathematics) , extreme value theory , physics , geomorphology , geometry , mathematics , statistics , nuclear physics , materials science , mathematical analysis , composite material
The literature disagrees about the statistical distribution of snow avalanche crown depths. Large datasets from Mammoth Mountain, California and the Westwide Avalanche Network show that the three‐parameter generalized extreme value distribution provides the most robust fit, followed by a two‐parameter variation, the Fréchet distribution. The most parsimonious explanation is neither self‐organized criticality nor other complex cascades, but the maximum domain of attraction, implying that distributions of individual avalanche crown depths are scaling. We also show that crown depths do not have a universal tail index. Rather, they range from 2.8 to 4.6 over different avalanche paths, consistent with other geophysical phenomena such as wildfires, which show similar variability.