A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods

Lützow, Natalie; Veh, Georg; Korup, Oliver

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023

Articles | Volume 15, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2983-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 7

Data description paper

|

12 Jul 2023

Data description paper |

| 12 Jul 2023

A global database of historic glacier lake outburst floods

Natalie Lützow, Georg Veh, and Oliver Korup

Data sets

Glacier Lake Outburst Flood Database V3.1 Natalie Lützow and Georg Veh https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7330344

Short summary

Glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a prominent natural hazard, and climate change may change their magnitude, frequency, and impacts. A global, literature-based GLOF inventory is introduced, entailing 3151 reported GLOFs. The reporting density varies temporally and regionally, with most cases occurring in NW North America. Since 1900, the number of yearly documented GLOFs has increased 6-fold. However, many GLOFs have incomplete records, and we call for a systematic reporting protocol.