[A-CC25] Glaciology in the new normal

[ACC25-09] Characteristics of topography where glaciers can exist in the northern Japanese Alps

*Kenshiro Arie¹, Chiyuki Narama¹, Kotaro FUKUI², Hajime IIDA², Ryohei Yamamoto³ (1.Niigata University, 2.Tateyama Caldera Sabo Museum, 3.Aero Asahi corporation)

Keywords:Glacier, Avalanche, SfM, Mass barance

Many perennial snow patches are distributed in the northern Japanese Alps due to the coastal area of the Sea of Japan experiences the heaviest snowfall worldwide (Asahi, 2013). In recent years, seven glaciers were confirmed in the northern Japanese Alps (e.g., Arie et al., 2019). The formation of glaciers and perennial snow patches needs particular environments that acquire the large amounts of snow accumulation in the northern Japanese Alps' current climatic environment. The distributions of glaciers and perennial snow patches in the northern Japanese Alps are limited to places where has special conditions such as snow supply due to avalanche (Higuchi, 1968). Hughes (2008) proposed that a high value of the ratio (avalanche-ratio) of the total avalanche-release area (> 30-degree slope gradient area in the glacier catchment) to the total glacier area indicates a strong avalanche contribution to glacier accumulation. This study compared the catchment area and avalanche ratio of glaciers and perennial snow patches with an area of >10000 m2 in the northern part of the northern Japanese Alps.