TY - Generic T1 - Near-surface faceted crystals and their effect on snow stability, Red Mountain Pass Corridor, Colorado T2 - 66th Annual Western Snow Conference Y1 - 1998 A1 - Stock, J. A1 - Elder, K. A1 - Birkeland, K. KW - Avalanche forecasting, Snow crystals AB - Avalanches may be important hydrologically if avalanche deposits alter the timing and volume of runoff. Avalanches often fail from a weak layer such as surface hoar. graupel. or faceted crystals. One important type of faceted crystal. called near-surface faceted crystals. form in the near-surface layers. During the 1997/98 winter. A study of near-surface faceted crystals was conducted along the Red Mountain Pass corridor, Colorado. Six types of near-surface faceted crystals were differentiated: small faceted crystals, radiation recrystallization grains. Faceted precipitation crystals, near-surface hoar, faceted partly-decomposed precipitation crystals and needles. A particularly well-developed near-surface facet layer that evolved in December acted as the dominant weak layer in the study area for seven weeks. Observation of 14 avalanches showed that 79% of the failures occurred on near-surface faceted layers. The majority of stability test failures occurred on near-surface faceted layers. Understanding the growth of near-surface faceted crystals and their effect on snow stability is important for avalanche forecasting. JF - 66th Annual Western Snow Conference T3 - Proceedings of the 66th Annual Western Snow Conference PB - Western Snow Conference CY - Snowbird, Utah UR - sites/westernsnowconference.org/PDFs/1998Stock.pdf ER -