About Avalanches
What Are Avalanches?
Avalanches are crushing masses of snow, rocks and ice, it falls down a mountainside with crushing and devastating force.
Most avalanches, thankfully, are small slides of dry powder snow, they are called 'sluffs' and usually don't do too much damage.
Big avalanches, however, are disastrous, they happen when massive chunks of snow loosen and break away from a mountainside. The falling mass can move up to 80 miles per hour within 5 seconds.
This can obviously become quite damaging to unsuspecting people near the mountain, if the avalanche reaches them they can be seriously harmed or killed. Villages on the mountainside or on the mountain can also be damaged. Avalanches can also cause flash floods if large quantities of debris infiltrate the river. Causing water levels to rise.
Avalanches are crushing masses of snow, rocks and ice, it falls down a mountainside with crushing and devastating force.
Most avalanches, thankfully, are small slides of dry powder snow, they are called 'sluffs' and usually don't do too much damage.
Big avalanches, however, are disastrous, they happen when massive chunks of snow loosen and break away from a mountainside. The falling mass can move up to 80 miles per hour within 5 seconds.
This can obviously become quite damaging to unsuspecting people near the mountain, if the avalanche reaches them they can be seriously harmed or killed. Villages on the mountainside or on the mountain can also be damaged. Avalanches can also cause flash floods if large quantities of debris infiltrate the river. Causing water levels to rise.
