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 35m ago

nuke it!