Riccardo Scotti

Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo (S.G.L.)

We present a regional inventory of rock glaciers (n = 1514) and protalus ramparts (228) for the Lombardy region, central Italian Alps. To identify and classify the landforms we inspect three sequential air-orthophoto mosaics and a 2 m-DSM, and conduct confirmatory field work. The inventory forms an empirical basis to analyze: (i) the relative contr...

The variability of glacier response to atmospheric temperature rise in different topo-climatic settings is still a matter of debate. To address this question in the Central Italian Alps, we compile a post-LIA (Little Ice Age) multitemporal glacier inventory (1860–1954–1990–2003–2007) along a latitudinal transect that originates north of the contine...

The Plator rock glacier is the first such landform identified in the Italian Alps that shows destabilised behaviour. Analysis of six sets of sequential orthophotographs from 1981 to 2012 reveals an exceptional advance of the rock glacier front (92.1 m) and a horizontal velocity up to 4m a-1 in different zones. The spatial variability of kinematics...

Across the northern European Alps, a long tradition of Quaternary studies has constrained post-LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) landscape history. The same picture remains largely unknown for the southern portion of the orogen. In this work, starting from existing ¹⁰Be exposure dating of three boulders in Val Viola, Central Italian Alps, we present the f...

This paper aims to evaluate sources of uncertainty and variability associated with rock glacier inventories compiled from remotely sensed imagery. To this end, we ran three mapping exercises in Kaiserbergtal, Austria. To evaluate interactions between mapping style and imagery resolution, we asked six operators to map and assess the degree of activi...

In dry southwestern South Tyrol, Italy, rock glaciers are dominant landforms of the high-mountain cryosphere. Their spatial distribution and degree of activity hold critical information on the past and current state of discontinuous permafrost, and consequently on response potential to climate warming. Traditional geomorphologic mapping, however, o...

This study presents monitoring data of a debris flow event in the Central Italian Alps. The debris flow occurred on August 16, 2021 in the Blè basin (Val Camonica valley, Lombardia Region) and was recorded by a monitoring station installed just few weeks before. The monitoring system was deployed to document the hydrologic response of the catchment...

Il report a cura del Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo - SGL presenta i dati rilevati sul campo e l'interpretazione sulla base delle medie storiche degli ultimi decenni. Le nevicate tardo primaverili limitano parzialmente i danni di un'altra stagione di accumulo avara di precipitazioni sui ghiacciai lombardi. I valori di altezza neve e contenuto in ac...

Una stagione di accumulo eccezionalmente secca, aggravata da un mese di maggio dalle temperature elevatissime, ha provocato una scarsità di neve senza precedenti sui ghiacciai lombardi

La recessione dei ghiacciai è ormai un fenomeno tanto noto quanto evidente. In particolare nell’ultimo trentennio, i ghiacciai alpini stanno subendo un incisivo e rapido ridimensionamento dovuto principalmente all’innalzamento delle temperature. Se da un punto di vista scientifico monitorare le variazioni glaciali consente di documentare e quantifi...

Permafrost distribution in the European Alps has been modelled at regional scale but, given its high spatial variability, in situ measurements remain crucial to calibrate the model outputs and to monitor the permafrost evolution. Ground surface temperature (GST) is defined as the near surface temperature of the ground and is typically measured few...

Terrestrial time-lapse images have been mainly used to improve glacier monitoring by measuring glacier flow, snow and ice albedo, mass and energy balance and to investigate calving and surging processes. Accelerated videos of time-lapse image series are extremely powerful tools to visualize the effects of climate change on glaciers. After the pione...

Between 19 and 20 December 2020 a rock-ice avalanche detached from the northern side of Punta S. Matteo (3678 m a.s.l. – Upper Valtellina – Italian Alps) travelling along the steep glacier-covered northern slope of the mountain and stopped on the western plateau of Forni glacier at ~2945 m a.s.l.. The scar ranges in elevation from 3535 to 3650 m a....

Between 19 and 20 December 2020 a rock-ice avalanche detached from the northern side of Punta S. Matteo (3678 m a.s.l. – Upper Valtellina – Italian Alps) travelling along the steep glacier-covered northern slope of the mountain and stopped on the western plateau of Forni glacier at ~2945 m a.s.l.. The scar ranges in elevation from 3535 to 3650 m a....

The interplay of tectonic and climatic forcing in the development of Alpine deep-seated gravitational slope deformations (DSGSD) is still poorly understood. We investigate a giant DSGSD affecting the Piz Dora slope (Val Müstair, Switzerland) by geological, structural and geomorphological analyses, spaceborne SAR interferometry and numerical modelli...

https://www.caimorbegno.org/?portfolio=annuario-2018

In latter years, because of the climate change and the related transition from cold to warm based ice in high elevation glaciers, avalanches due to the collapses of hanging glaciers have raised importance and interest. In this work, we present the case study of Palòn de la Mare, a mountain glacier with a secondary hanging snout, which frequently br...

In latter years, because of the climate change and the related transition from cold to warm based ice in high elevation glaciers, avalanches due to the collapses of hanging glaciers have raised importance and interest. In this work, we present the case study of Palòn de la Mare, a mountain glacier with a secondary hanging snout, which frequently br...

In this report, winter mass balances of eight glaciers in the Lombardy region (Central Italian Alps) are presented for the season 2017/2018. Data were provided by the Glaciological Service of Lombardy (Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo, SGL) network. The 2017/18 point winter balances in the Lombardy region are the most negative since 2007 in terms of...

To improve current understanding of ongoing deglaciation dynamics in relation to climatic forcing, it is critical to build long-term series of climate and glacier changes. This task is typically hampered by availability and resolution of Quaternary glacier paleo-reconstructions. To explore opportunities and challenges, we present a case study from...

In order to assess the climate–glacier relationship in the Southern European Alps, two small glaciers in Lombardy, Suretta Sud and Lupo, have been chosen for investigation. GPS profiling in 2016 allowed the determination of elevation changes since 2007 and thus the determination of the glacier mass balance using the geodetic method. Older maps have...

Rock avalanches are large flow-like movements of fragmented rock that can cause extensive and rapid topographic changes, for which very few quantitative data are available. This paper analyses the geomorphological and hydrological impact of the 3 million m3 Thurwieser rock avalanche (2004, Italian Central Alps) by using Terrestrial Laser Scanner, a...

Dati dai siti nivologici del Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo www.servizioglaciologicolombardo.it

Radio echo soundings using dual-frequency 200 and 600 MHz antennas were applied on Suretta and Lupo glacier to investigate glacier thicknesses and firn stratification. On two days in October 2014, tracks of a total length of 2.4 km (Suretta) and 3.1 km (Lupo) were recorded. The post-processing was conducted using the Reflexw software package and co...

We present an integrated approach that aims to: (i) document the spatial distribution of mass-wasting activity and sediment production in the Saldur River basin (97 km2); (ii) detect causal linkages between mass-wasting intensity and the potential spatial distribution of discontinuous permafrost; (iii) identify source-to-sink colluvial sedimentary...

While it is widely recognized that deglaciation and permafrost degradation can induce generalized instability in steep mountain terrain, beyond the documentation of single catastrophic mass-wasting events, there appears to be little empirical work on how the colluvial sediment cascade functions under conditions of increasing atmospheric temperature...

The variability of glacier response to atmospheric temperature rise in different topo-climatic settings is still matter of debate. To address this question in the Central Italian Alps we compile a post-LIA (Little Ice Age) multitemporal glacier inventory (1860-1954-1990-2003-2007) along a latitudinal transect that originates north of the continenta...

The variability of glacier response to atmospheric temperature rise in different topo-climatic settings is still matter of debate. To address this question in the Central Italian Alps we compile a post-LIA (Little Ice Age) multitemporal glacier inventory (1860-1954-1990-2003-2007) along a latitudinal transect that originates north of the continenta...

In the last three decades generalized atmospheric temperature rise has produced rapid glacial retreat and permafrost degradation in high mountain environments of the European Alps. While it is widely recognized that these changes can impart general instability to mountain slopes (i.e. several projects have documented single case studies of high mag...

Negli ultimi decenni la geografia del glacialismo montano del nostro pianeta è drasticamente mutata. Come accade un po’ ovunque, anche per i ghiacciai lombardi è in corso un rapido adattamento a condizioni climatiche che, sempre più negative, ne mettono a repentaglio la stessa sopravvivenza. Decine di unità glaciali estinte, forti contrazioni areal...

The Lombardy Alps, with a surface of 2148 km2 above 2000 m a.s.l. (9% of the total) represents an important portion of the southern side of the orogen. For encompassing a variety of tectonic and climatic regimes, they represent an interesting area to examine environmental controls on periglacial processes. Today, technological developments in remot...

The regional mass balance project aims to estimate the mass balance of Lombardy glaciers (Central Alps, Italy) over the survey period 2007-2011. A network of 52 stakes was established, where measurements were taken yearly. The network was designed to cover 15 of the largest glaciers within the region, as well as to inspect all the glaciarized mount...

We present a new rock glacier inventory compiled for the Orobic Alps (2000 sqkm) and the Livigno Valley (270 sqkm), Lombardy Region, Italy. This effort is part of a larger ongoing project that aims at building a region-wide database of periglacial landforms. The two study areas represent the extremes, in terms of hydro-climatic and physiographic ch...

The aim of this project is to estimate the total amount of meltwater produced yearly by Lombardy glaciers. In 2007 a 48-ablatometric-stake network has been positioned on 15 glaciers, which are intended to be representative of 8 ranges of elevation. The total amount of meltwater released by every glacial sector was measured for the years 2007, 2008...

This paper summarizes the main results of surveys carried out on thePunta San Matteo serac (Ortles-Cevedale Group, Italy). The monitoringcampaigns mainly consisted in surveying the serac with a Total Station (over the period from July 2005 to November 2005) and with a laserscanner. The displacements of the unstable ice mass (about 12 m) and itsgeo...

Oggetto del lavoro di tesi è stato lo studio delle relazioni tra il bilancio di massa di alcuni rappresentativi ghiacciai alpini italiani e i principali parametri climatici. I ghiacciai analizzati sono stati scelti per le loro caratteristiche tipologiche e dimensionali nonché per la continuità ed estensione temporale dei dati di bilancio di massa c...

This paper is analysing amounts, characteristics and causes of fluctuations of climate and glaciers in Lombardy from the end of the LIA to 2006. Special attention is paid to the withdrawal phase of the XX century and to the present rate of recession, whose entity is probably unmatched in the recent history of this Region. Since 1850, the glacial co...

Several crevasses appeared changing rapidly on the serac of the north face of Mount S. Matteo (Ortles-Cevedale Group, Italy) during spring 2005 and they were noticed by some mountaineers. This phenomenon suggested an high risk of a huge serac fall, so the Universities of Milan and Brescia together with operators of Italian Glaciologi-cal committee...

L’accresciuta sensibilità rispetto alle discipline glaciologiche ed in particolare per gli aspetti riguardanti il rischio e la pericolosità in alta montagna hanno portato negli ultimi anni allo studio sistematico ed alla modellizzazione di fenomeni glaciali prima trascurati come la dinamica e l’evoluzione dei ghiacciai sospesi o seracchi. In questo...

L'accresciuta sensibilità rispetto alle discipline glaciologiche ed in particolare per gli aspetti riguardanti il rischio e la pericolosità in alta montagna ha portato negli ultimi anni allo studio sistematico di fenomeni glaciali prima trascurati come la dinamica e l'evoluzione dei ghiacciai sospesi o seracchi. In questo contesto si collocano il m...

A sud della cresta che collega le C.me di Fellaria al Piz Argient e quindi al Pizzo Palü Orientale fino al P.zo Cambrena nasce uno dei più importanti ed imponenti complessi glaciali delle Alpi Meridionali: il gruppo Fellaria-Palü. Classicamente la parte italiana del complesso glaciale viene suddivisa in due apparati: Fellaria Ovest ed Est. Il primo...

Il Ghiacciaio di Predarossa,che butta le sue acque nel Masino,con i suoi 110 ha di superficie (dato relativo al 1990 e pubblicato su " Ghiacciai in Lombardia " ed Bolis 1992) è il ghiacciaio più vasto della Val Masino e del versante meridionale del M.Disgrazia. Noto al mondo alpinistico perché via d'accesso alla normale del M.Disgrazia, è stato uno...

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