An avalanche is a rapid, gravity-driven flow of snow, ice, and often entrained rock and debris that propagates downslope once the shear stress within a snowpack exceeds its shear strength. It emerges from mechanical instabilities in stratified snow layers, commonly at interfaces between weak layers and overlying cohesive slabs, triggered by loading, temperature gradients, or external perturbations. Avalanches can exhibit distinct flow regimes, including slab avalanches with brittle fracture and propagating crack fronts, loose-snow avalanches with point-release dynamics, and powder-snow avalanches characterized by turbulent, dilute suspensions. Their behavior is studied using snow mechanics, rheology, and fluid dynamics to model initiation, propagation, and runout.
Although the fundamental constitutive laws for steel and concrete were established more than a century ago, weak layers in snow remain a mystery. There are currently two theories about how they fail. A study published in ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 15, 2026
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This winter was one of the warmest on record across the West. As a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 23, 2026
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The findings of a new paper show governance and preparedness rather than hazard magnitude determine whether avalanches become mass-casualty events. With large ice-rock avalanches growing in frequency as steep slopes in the ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 15, 2026
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Since 10 January 2026, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) has received reports of hundreds of "whumpfs" (i.e., sounds indicating a collapse in the snowpack) and of remote triggering events—unmistakable ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 18, 2026
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In terms of area, forest is the most important means of avalanche protection. It is also the most cost-effective and is naturally renewable. This insight hit home after the winter of 1951, when over 1,000 avalanches caused ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 9, 2026
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Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become ...
Astronomy
Jan 21, 2026
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How do avalanches affect pylons and other sensitive infrastructure? Using detailed simulations, SLF researcher Michael Kohler has shown that the compressibility of snow initially reduces avalanche pressure, but that at high ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 7, 2026
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An international research team has shown that avalanches are crucial to the survival of many glaciers worldwide. The study aims to contribute to better predictions of water resources and natural hazards in the context of ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 26, 2025
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Researchers from Simon Fraser University are urging snowshoers and winter hikers to get clued up on avalanche safety after a new study found a concerning lack of awareness among those taking part in the sports.
Environment
Nov 24, 2025
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When a meteoroid shook the edge of Apollinaris Mons on Mars, it triggered streaks that carved a hundred new scratches on the surface. The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured these dust avalanches on ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 7, 2025
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