Sea ice in early stage of formation. It is comparatively salty and crystalline in appearance. Like young ice, it is not yet affected by lateral pressure.
A mass of snow, ice or rocks moving rapidly down a steep mountain slope. Avalanches may be characterized as loose and turbulent, or slab; either type may be dry or wet according to the nature of the
snow forming it, although dry snow usually forms loose avalanches and wet snow forms slabs. A large avalanche sweeps a current of air along with and in front of it as an avalanche wind, which supplements its already tremendous destructive force.
A mass of snow (perhaps containing ice and rocks) moving rapidly down a steep mountain slope. Avalanches may be characterized as loose and turbulent, or slab; either type may be dry or wet according t
o the nature of the snow forming it, although dry snow usually forms loose avalanches and wet snow forms slabs. A large avalanche sweeps a current of air along with and in front of it as an avalanche wind, which supplements its already tremendous destructive force. (Also called snowslide.)
A mass of snow, rock, and/or ice falling down a mountain or incline. In practice, it usually refers to the snow avalanche. In the United States, the term snow slide is commonly used to mean a snow ava
lanche.
A slide or flow of a mass of snow, firn or ice that becomes detached abruptly, often entraining additional material such as snow, debris and vegetation as it descends. The duration of an avalanche is
typically seconds to minutes.
The rush of air produced in front of an avalanche of dry snow or in front of a landslide. The most destructive form, the avalanche blast, occurs when an avalanche is stopped abruptly, as in the case o
f an almost vertical fall into a valley floor. Such blasts may have very erratic behavior, leveling one house without damaging its neighbor.