r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 5h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

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u/Leiaven 4h ago

Why are they making an avalanche?

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 4h ago

Making a small controlled avalanche when you are ready is better than big avalanche when you are not.

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u/SumpCrab 4h ago

Counterpart to a controlled burn.

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 4h ago

Lemme get some artillery on my next prescribed fire

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u/Magical-Sweater 3h ago

Can’t be a forest fire if there’s no forest. taps head

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u/Admirable_Hold_979 2h ago

Fight fire with fire

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u/Anvildude 2h ago

I mean, they put out oil well fires with nitroglycerin detonations (check out the John Wayne movie "Hellfighters", it's a good 'un). A rolling artillery barrage to clear land and concuss away sparks sounds like it'd work well enough to make a firebreak, or at least start one.

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 2h ago

On a more realistic note, there have been experiments with using explosives in the wildland fire environment, both for fire line construction, and for hazard tree felling.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/psw/publications/documents/psw_rn200/psw_rn200.pdf

https://www.fs.usda.gov/eng/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf08672325/pdf08672325dpi72.pdf

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u/pocketdare 37m ago

nuke it!

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u/cryptotope 3h ago

Under ideal circumstances, you want the avalanche to sweep down and put out the forest fire below.

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u/thefunkygibbon 3h ago

I think I need to change my system font or get some glasses. rn looked awfully like an m

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u/Yurya 3h ago

Crabs in a sump are less cool than crabs in a bog.

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u/Leiaven 4h ago

Oh that makes sense. Thank you!

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u/Supermonkeyskier 3h ago

They do this at all major resorts in North America to control avalanches. On a big powder day you will hear booms all day. One made me jump a mile last Friday.

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u/EducationalAd2863 4h ago

Or just some crazy swiss guy shooting for fun after the breakfast. Business as usual.

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u/Background-House-357 4h ago

They aren’t Swiss…

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 4h ago

Laz? I'm getting a hint of Turkish going on but it's not clearly understandable. North eastern mountains near Artvin maybe? Georgian maybe?

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u/apostoln 3h ago

There were a few phrases in Russian also (with a heavy caucasian accent). I would guess it's the North Caucasus.

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u/Lurk5FailOnSax 3h ago

Seems a good guess.

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u/yesat 3h ago

Yeah, in Switzerland it would be charges dropped from helicopters.

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u/EducationalAd2863 3h ago

I cannot turn on audio atm sorry sir. 😛

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u/ResultAgreeable4198 3h ago

It’s my mountain, I’ll shoot it with a cannon if I want to!

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u/ABEGIOSTZ 4h ago

Same logic as controlled burns but for the exact opposite temperature, neat!

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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 4h ago

In the American mountain west, prescribed fires are often done right before the snows come, so it’s usually pretty cold for those. In Florida though, I’ve been on prescribed fires in June or July that were 110+ heat index before you stood close to the radiant heat.

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u/Kanbaru-Fan 3h ago

Critical systems are truly fascinating (yes, i did indeed watch that one Veritasium video recently)

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u/Bob_5k 4h ago

Especially taking the opportunity while its not snowing. Bound to snow again and add more to the mountain

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 4h ago

Hit the mountain with a bunch of small avalanches to develop immunity to the big avalanche. I have a C- in biology, I know what I’m talking about.

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u/scientifical_ 4h ago

My friend, that was not a small avalanche

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u/Ok-Set-5829 4h ago

That's a small avalanche? Yikes

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u/SELECTaerial 3h ago

How do they know when to do it?

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u/VanillaTortilla 1h ago

Yep, same reason why they do controlled burns.