Munich Alpine Hazards and Mitigation Cluster (AlpHaz)

Insights into Zugspitze/Eibsee rock avalanche


Sibylle Knapp conducted field work doing a seismic survey on the Eibsee lake, which has been formed by a massive rock avalanche 3700 years ago, in cooperation with Prof. Flavio Anselmetti (University of Bern, Switzerland). Reflection seismic profiles aim at improving our knowledge of mobility processes of the sediments on the uppermost part of the Eibsee rock avalanche during the late event stadium, as well as detecting sedimentary structures that show high levels of fluidization and thus would hint at the presence of a paleolake. The post-evental paleotopography could be reconstructed. Next step will be the retrievement of sediment cores at suitable locations throughout the lake basin.