Advances in ice avalanches on the Tibetan Plateau

As some of the greatest natural disasters in the cryosphere, ice avalanches (IAs) seriously threaten lives and cause catastrophic damage to the resource environment, but a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge on IAs remains lacking. We summarized 63 IAs on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) since the 20th century, of which, over 20 IAs occurred after the 21st century. The distributions of IAs are mainly concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern TP, and the occurrence time of IAs is mostly concentrated from July to September. We highlight recent advances in mechanical properties and genetic mechanisms of IAs and emphasize that temperature, rainfall, and seismicity are the inducing factors. The failure modes of IAs are summarized into 6 categories by examples: slip pulling type, slip toppling type, slip breaking type, water level collapse type, cave roof collapse type, and wedge failure type. Finally, we deliver recommendations concerning the risk assessment and prediction of IAs. The results provide important scientific value for addressing climate change and resisting glacier-related hazards.