Glacial retreat is making slopes more unstable
As glaciers shrink along the BC coast, they're leaving behind slopes that are increasingly prone to failure, and we're working to understand that connection.
Quadra Coastal Observatory
Cryosphere & Geohazards
Elliot Creek/Bute Inlet was a big deal
The 2020 rock-and-glacier avalanche and wave it generated in Bute Inlet is a key example of the kind of catastrophic events we study and try to better understand. We put together a comprehensive multimedia article about the Elliot Creek Slide.
We do some landslide change detection
Using repeat aerial and remote sensing surveys to basically ask "did a landslide happen here?" and build up a picture of where slope failures are occurring along the coast.
Airborne snowpack surveys with VIU
In partnership with the CHRL lab at Vancouver Island University, we fly surveys to measure how much water is stored in the snowpack, backed up by ground truthing to validate the airborne data.
Snowpack data feeds into watershed and flood understanding
Snow data informs freshet timing and flood risk forecasting relevant to coastal communities and land managers.
