The Group

The chair of Alpine Mass Movement at ETH Zürich investigates the mechanics of gravitational mass movements occurring in mountain environments and contributes to mitigation and land-use planning solutions. Processes of interest include avalanches, debris flows and rockfalls. The group develops and uses advanced computational methods as well as physics-based practice-oriented approaches, supported by laboratory and field experiments to better understand and predict the triggering phase, the dynamics and the impacts of mass movements. Particular attention is devoted to understanding and addressing climate change impacts and potentially catastrophic cascading processes.
The new chair Alpine Mass Movements covers one of the six main topics of the external page CERC research centre. The chair is operated together with the Alpine Mass Movements group at the external page WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos in the framework of a joint professorship by Johan Gaume.