Articles | Volume 26, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-4045-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Brief communication: Towards defining the worst-case breach scenarios and potential flood volumes for moraine-dammed lake outbursts
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- Final revised paper (published on 26 Aug 2026)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 13 Oct 2025)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
| : Report abuse
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CC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4136', Koji Fujita, 20 Nov 2025
- AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Adam Emmer, 21 Apr 2026
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4136', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Dec 2025
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Adam Emmer, 21 Apr 2026
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4136', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Feb 2026
- AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Adam Emmer, 21 Apr 2026
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (05 May 2026) by Mihai Niculita
AR by Adam Emmer on behalf of the Authors (23 Jun 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (06 Jul 2026) by Mihai Niculita
ED: Publish as is (17 Aug 2026) by Mihai Niculita
AR by Adam Emmer on behalf of the Authors (17 Aug 2026)
Manuscript
Dear authors,
This study estimates the potential flood volume (PFV) of glacial lakes from the angle of the post-GLOF flow path. Although it does not evaluate the outburst potential itself, I believe it provides useful information. As a researcher who has conducted similar prior research, I offer several comments that I hope will be helpful.
The fact that the angle of the post-GLOF flow path is small was shown in Figure 6 of Fujita et al. (2013), so I would appreciate it if this could also be mentioned in the manuscript. The difference in PFV estimates ultimately stems from the choice of threshold: 10° in Fujita et al. (2013) and 3° in this study, so it would be good to refer to this point in the discussion.
I believe the Supplement figure represents an important result of this study, so it should be included in the main manuscript. It should also be discussed what characteristics glacial lakes with large angles maintained even after outburst tend to have.
I have some objections regarding the method shown in Figure 1D and Equations 1 & 2. What can actually be measured from satellite data is the “horizontal distance”, not the “slope distance”; therefore, “d” should be treated as the horizontal distance, and the angle should be calculated using the arctangent (Equation 1). In addition, Equation 2 should be computed using the tangent.
In estimating the PFV shown in Figure 2, the calculations use the moraine crest, but glacial lakes are not necessarily filled with water up to the top of the moraine. Therefore, it would be better to use the lakeshore, which is easier to identify in satellite imagery.
The moraine toe boundary is not clearly identifiable for all glacial lakes. The impact of uncertainty in determining the toe position on the PFV should be evaluated.
Regarding the PFV re-evaluated in Table 1, Fujita et al. (2013) assessed PFV for many glacial lakes and also provided their location information in the Supplement. Therefore, PFV should be evaluated for a larger number of glacial lakes.