Sastrugi
Sastrugi (also: Zastrugi ) or Windgangeln are called streamlined elevations or grooves in the snow . Sastrugi can be up to 30 cm high and are found mainly in the mountains or in the polar regions . They become so hard that they can hinder movement on small snowmobiles or skis .
The word Sastrugi is the direct equivalent of the Russian заструги ( plural of заструга) and has been adopted in different languages due to different transcriptions and plural formations in different spellings such as Sastrugus, Sastrugos, Sastruga. In German, Sastrugi (as singular or plural) or Sastrugis (as plural) is mostly used.
Despite a certain visual resemblance to cornices , Sastrugi, in contrast to these, are not created by deposition, but by the wind-related removal of snow. The wind cuts the profile of Windgangeln or Sastrugi in places with somewhat harder snow out of the previously higher snow cover. Unlike a cornice is the flatter side of Sastrugis downwind, so the leeward side , the steeper the windward , so upwind side. For winter sports enthusiasts, this can be helpful in assessing the avalanche danger: Although there is usually no acute avalanche danger in the immediate area of the Sastrugi, they enable the wind force and, above all, direction to be determined. From this, an experienced winter sports enthusiast can draw conclusions about where the snow that has been removed has been transported and possibly where dangerous snow drift accumulations have formed.
literature
- Werner Munter : 3x3 avalanches - making decisions in critical situations . Pohl & Schellhammer, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1999, ISBN 3-00-002060-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.powderpark.de/stories/artikel.php?id=839
- ↑ Werner Munter: 3x3 Avalanches - Deciding in critical situations . Pohl & Schellhammer, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1999, ISBN 3-00-002060-8 .
- ↑ Bernadette Hince: The Antarctic dictionary: a complete guide to Antarctic English , CSIRO Publishing, 2000, p. 297 (English)