Attention to the "White Dragon"

In Europe, the age-old mystery of the East have been told over the centuries since - "flying without wings, without proposing hands, no eyes and sees what?"

No wonder that man has learned to be suspicious over this white dragon, the largest and most powerful of avalanches can exceed speeds of 300 km / h, and masses of 10,000,000 tons.

An avalanche can swallow a mountain climber or even just buried an entire village in the blink of an eye. What are these amazing phenomena? IfThey live in snow-covered mountains, you already know the answer. If, however, may have to call home in a tropical region, you've probably never seen one before hand.

Avalanches in the mountains where the snow falls freely and often born. Its birth was announced suddenly, when large masses of snow, ice, earth, stone and other materials, such as tree trunks, quickly cascade down a slope or a cliff, often destroying everything in their path. Not only the weight and power ofa devastating avalanche, but the air pressure was too low density of trees and damage to other objects in its path, including bridges, roads, railway lines, or goes forward.

A natural phenomenon

For most of the mass of tons of thundering power is made up of small white flakes of snow. How can something so beautiful as snow falling now as deadly as a roaring avalanche? The answer lies in the properties of snow. Snow is in various forms:Crystals, pellets and granules. The flakes of crystal are always six-pointed stars in an endless variety of patterns. Each is admirable in themselves. Once these crystals have fallen to the ground, they can change their appearance. Differences in air temperature and pressure which cause the accumulation of snow will be smaller than they settle. Within a period of 24 hours, a compact 30 cm of fresh snow can only be 10 cm.

Depending on the shape of snowflakes, the stability ofThe snowpack varies. six-pointed crystals in them, but granules and pellets are falling over each other and produce unstable layers. These can be easily under a coat drive. So the kind of snow, the amount has fallen, the slope of the terrain, the temperature differences, and determine the intensity of the winds all, if an avalanche in motion. An avalanche can also be activated accidentally by the body weight of either a human or an animal on a steepSnowfield. However, there are other types of avalanches.

Wind avalanches occur when a mixture of granular and crystalline snow, the kind of loose powder that skiers love sends air through a strong gust of wind. Its light, the snow up in the air and can dive down into the valley at 300 km per hour. In this case, the air pressure builds up before the snow so that air can raise the roofs of the houses destroyed and avalanches in a fewSeconds.

A sort of fatal avalanche is hard-slab avalanche. This slab avalanches are down by an accumulation of old snow and caused in a compressed period of time. If the top layer of snow breaks, large pieces of ice can be a mountain slope between 50 and 80 km per hour glide. These hard deposits can also hang over the edge of a precipice. These represent a great danger for skiers, because the weight is enough to cancel one skier and fix a flatAvalanche that can bury a few seconds.

In spring, the avalanche danger is increasing. O rain and sun makes the snow is wet, often too wet slab avalanches. They move slowly, but a whole side can be involved. As the mass of snow slides, collect rocks, trees and soil, which, dirty walls of debris to its end point.

A phenomenon similar to the avalanche of glaciers or ice avalanches. The glaciers are huge slabs of ice,Form in very cold regions in depressions or on shady slopes where the snow never melts. Over time, however, the snow freezes into solid ice. Glaciers move very slowly downwards. Because their movement is predictable, which rarely cause much damage or injury.

And 'certainly useful caution the white dragon of the avalanche!