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.
Forests protect against avalanches, but not every forest is equally effective. Thanks to almost 50 years of observations at the Stillberg afforestation site, SLF researchers have now gained insight into how the avalanche ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 28, 2025
0
19
Researchers have shown for the first time how hidden motions could control how granular materials such as soil and snow slip and slide, confirming a long-suspected hypothesis. The knowledge could help in understanding how ...
General Physics
Aug 26, 2025
1
41
Lib4RI has completed the digitization of more than 700 historical snow and avalanche reports from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. These reports, published between 1938 and 2005, document decades of ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2025
0
15
A new 3D simulation tool developed by ETH and SLF researchers now allows for significantly more accurate predictions of complex alpine mass movements, supporting alpine risk management.
General Physics
Jul 7, 2025
0
27
Swiss authorities were on Thursday monitoring for possible flood risk in a southern valley, following a massive glacier collapse that created a huge pile of debris after destroying a small village.
Environment
May 29, 2025
0
45
Nepali mountaineers on Tuesday searched for two people swept away by a powerful avalanche on the world's 10th highest mountain Annapurna, officials said.
Environment
Apr 8, 2025
0
32
In a gliding avalanche, the entire snowpack slides down a suitable substratum such as grass or slabs of rock. Such avalanches are always released naturally. This requires the snow on the ground to become moist. In winter, ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 2, 2025
0
24
Why do avalanches start to slide? And what happens inside the "pile of snow?" If you ask yourself these questions, you are very close to a physical problem. This phenomenon not only occurs on mountain peaks and in snow masses, ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 17, 2025
0
51
Instead of a winter wonderland, the Red Planet's northern hemisphere goes through an active—even explosive—spring thaw. While New Year's Eve is around the corner here on Earth, Mars scientists are ahead of the game: The Red ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 20, 2024
0
63
Champatis, the seeds of the Lapsi tree, are valued in Nepal for their medical, economic, social, and cultural significance. They are also popular among children as simple playthings. But for a group of physicists, these unique ...
General Physics
Nov 19, 2024
0
31
