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In 90 percent of avalanche fatalities, the avalanche is triggered by the weight of the victim, or someone in the victim's party. Natural avalanches occur because new or windblown snow overloads weak layers of snow, or because of rapid warming, but there's almost always obvious signs of instability by the time avalanches come down on their own.

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  • When too much snow builds up, and there is too much vibration, an avalanche occurs.
  • They happen by vibration.
  • An avalanche is a natural process in which snow responds to the pull of gravity.
  • When snow falls, its own weight causes it to melt and refreeze, therefore bonding the crystals together. This is how a glacier is formed. But, if the climate is unusually warm, or the snow has no time to melt, the bond is weak. This area of weak snow is very unstable. When a skier yells, or when a person is just too heavy, he displaces a small amount of snow. This causes (mind the pun) a "snow ball effect". One ounce of weak snow moves. This allows another few ounces to move, which in turn, causes the whole area of weak snow to start falling down the mountain. All this happens verry quickly, but can be prevented.
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8y ago
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14y ago

== == Basically, the snow builds up to the point where it can no longer support its own weight. Then it falls down. An avalanche can be triggered by an outside force such as a person traveling over its weakest point. Most avalanches occur when dense snow covers a weak layer. The bottom layer is often from colder snow with more air pockets, while the top layer is warmer and wetter. When snow blows the top layer, it can form areas where the snow hangs over a steep slope. When anything heavy breaks the snow, the weak layer gives, and the heavier top layer slides down. Avalanches also occur from the same basic week layer, strong layer, but if anything heavy moves across in the right place, the snow will slide. Example, a skier. A little bit of wind pushes a snowflake off a tree. The snowflake gets more and more snow on it. An avalanche occurs when there's an over-burden.

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11y ago

Avalanches occur when a large amount of snow and ice or rock falls suddenly down a mountainside. There are slab (or wet) avalanches and powder snow (or dry) avalanches. They usually happen after storms and are caused by weak layers of snow being unable to support the weight of the snow above it and the overlying snow cracks and breaks away.

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12y ago

An Avalanche is usually caused by large vibrations of sound through the air or under the icy snow, quick tempeture changes , speed changes in the wind or the weight of a snow sporter (ie. snowborder skiier).

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13y ago

As snow falls, it freezes and forms layers. An avalanche occurs if these layers become separated and move apart. This can be caused by climate change, heavy snowfall or loud noises. Avalanches may also be caused by people climbing, skiing or Snowboarding on unstable snow. Safety officers in ski resorts analyse the snow's profile. If they discover that the conditions are favourable for an avalanche, they carry out controlled explosions to loosen the ice and snow.

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11y ago

because most of the snow falls in the winter which causes the skiers to shout and yell and scream snow comes dripping of the mountain hill or a slope causing an avalanche

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11y ago

Unstable snow, sudden shake or movement, chain reaction of snow sliding down hills (an avalanche)

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Q: Why does heavy snowfall create avalanches?
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