Rock and ice avalanche-generated catastrophic debris flow at Chamoli, 7 February 2021: New insights from the geomorphic perspective

Within mountainous landscapes neighboring glaciers, slope instabilities and consequent catastrophic mass flows are vital processes on Earth's surface, which have been of increasing interest for decades. These events commonly exhibit large volume, high velocity, and high mobility. Recently, a catastrophic debris flow occurred in India on 7 February 2021, which unfortunately claimed 70 lives and left 134 people missing. The failed mass comprises 80 % rock debris and 20 % glacier ice. Our remote sedimentological investigation of remnant deposition shows clear evidence of wet granular flow in upper Ronti Gad valley, which doesn't support the previous interpretation of immediate melting of the failed 20 % ice mass during the falling and impacting process. We further utilized the superelevation phenomenon to back-calculate the velocity downstream of the impact zone, and estimated the peak discharge, which is verified by field-documented data. Our results revealed an initial waning trend of rock and ice mass flow. As it entered the narrow valley of the lower Ronti Gad River, the extensive material erosion resulted in three-fold flow enlargement, which gave rise to a maximal peak discharge of up to 48–54 × 104 m3/s. The transition from granular flow to debris flow occurred in the 2-km-long channel downstream of the Ronti Gad-Rishigangga confluence. The sediment deposition of 4.8 × 104 m3 and the incorporation of stream water in this zone have dominated the rheologic transition. We inferred that the intense erosion of erodible sediment due to topographic constraint plays an essential role in maintaining the mobility of the flow. Therefore, the effect of glacier ice meltwater on high mobility may be overestimated. As long as the granular flow can access the stream water in major rivers, flow transformation can easily happen because of sufficient water supply in the channel. The valley morphology in the proglacial region is commonly featured by the shift from an upstream U-shaped valley carved by glacier erosion into a downstream fluvial-erosion-dominated V-shaped valley. This geomorphic setting of glaciated tributary favors the long-distance run-out of rock and ice avalanche.