Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Direct protection of important objects and structures, e.g., by snow sheds (avalanche sheds) or schneekragens (in mining areas). A single intervention may fulfill the needs of multiple classes of purpose, for example, avalanche dams, ditches, earth mounds, and terraces are used for deflection, retardation, and catchment. Other passive methods ...
Avalanches occur in two general forms, or combinations thereof: [2] slab avalanches made of tightly packed snow, triggered by a collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and loose snow avalanches made of looser snow. After being set off, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass and volume as they capture more snow.
The behavior of an avalanche depends on the structure of the snowpack, but that's only one ingredient. An avalanche requires all the wrong conditions at the wrong time. The angle of the mountain ...
These barriers are made of concrete, rocks or earth. They are usually placed right above the structure, road or railway that they are trying to protect, although they can also be used to channel avalanches into other barriers. Occasionally, earth mounds are placed in the avalanche's path to slow it down.
“Avalanches occur in every steep, snowy and mountain environment,” a Sierra Avalanche Center forecaster said.
Most people caught in avalanches are on the slope when they occur. A better plan is avoiding them altogether. Recreationists can check forecasts at regional avalanche centers or www.avalanche.org .
A loose snow avalanche is an avalanche formed in snow with little internal cohesion among individual snow crystals.Usually very few fatalities occur from loose snow avalanches, as the avalanches have a tendency to break beneath the person and are usually small even having a path as small as a few centimeters, and as a result are sometimes called "harmless sloughs" that usually at most cause ...
Dozens of people were stranded after avalanches blanketed mountain towns east of Chile's capital Santiago and blocked roads, according to authorities. Heavy rain and snowstorms from the last few ...