1. Amazing Avalanches By: Max, Rachel, and Sheldon

2. Introduction: Do you know anything about avalanches? They are powerful, amazing amounts of snow that run down mountain sides. To learn more about avalanches, check out our amazing presentation!

3. What is an Avalanche? • An avalanche is snow and ice that break away from a side of a mountain. • “Avalanche,” the word, comes from a French word meaning “falling down”. • More than 1,000,000 avalanches happen around the world every year, and about 100,000 of them happen in the United States . • Avalanches happen during all seasons, but most take place during winter and spring because warm air makes layers of snow unstable. • Avalanches happen in three stages: First, the snow breaks away from a starting point; Then, the avalanche grows by picking up snow and it moves down the slope of a mountain; Then, when the avalanche comes to a flat surface or hits a large object, it stops. • Avalanches don’t fall, they run. That is the correct way to describe the avalanche’s movement. • Avalanches can bury people alive because the avalanche picks up snow on the way down a mountain slope. • Avalanches are deadly because they often happen so suddenly that no one can predict exactly when they will happen. • People also call avalanches “The White Death.”

4. Damage Caused by Avalanches and How to Control Them: • Avalanches can cause air blasts (strong winds). • Avalanches can crush forests. • Avalanches can kill people in their path too. • A slab avalanche is the most dangerous type of avalanche because a huge layer of snow comes down all at once. • Luckily, most avalanches happen in the mountains where no one lives. • Scientists study avalanches and predict when they will happen. • One scientist sent 300,000 ping-pong balls down a hill to see how avalanches react! • Sometimes scientists and rangers set avalanches on purpose for drills or avalanche control. • Avalanche control is when people set a small avalanche to prevent a larger one later. • Snow rangers help protect people by telling them if an avalanche could happen and warning people to stay out of certain areas.

5. Historic Avalanches • There are a few avalanches that have become famous because they were so destructive. • The 1910 Wellington Avalanche in Washington state destroyed 2 trains and killed 96 people. • Another famous avalanche in the United States was the Mount Rainier Avalanche, which was also in Washington State. • The Rainier Avalanche killed 11 mountain climbers in 1981. • Avalanches were used in Europe in World War I to destroy enemies . Thousands of soldiers were killed that way. • The Nevado Huascaran Avalanche was a very famous avalanche in South America. • The Nevado Huascaran Avalanche was caused by warm weather that caused ice to break free. • Nevado Huascaran is the tallest mountain in Peru. • The Nevado Huascaran Avalanche traveled 10 miles and killed more than 3,000 people when it destroyed 8 villages. • Scientists are now working on better ways to predict avalanches and to rescue people quickly when they do happen.

6. Bibliography Woods, Michael. Avalanches. 2007. Ylisaker, Ann. Avalanches. 2003.