Avalanches

Part I of Essay
White soft fluffy snow, hard to imagine something so innocent could be so destructive. Just picture a few tons of snow traveling down the mountain at approximately 80 miles per hour, taking down everything in its path. have been a threat as long as there has been snow and ....

Part II of Essay
.... chemistry behind a slab avalanche is when one layer of snow does not bond to the layer below it. Any kind of temperature change, fresh snowfall, the weight of a person, all can cause the slab to break free from the lower layer. The formation of a slab is possible in many ways. One way is for the snow to develop a crust and then there be more snowfall. Since snow doesn’t bond to the crust it becomes a potential for an avalanche zone. Another way is for surface hoar to develop, or large ice crystal on the snow. This is usually caused by condensa ....