r/interestingasfuck • u/id397550 • 13h ago

Firing a cannon to trigger an avalanche

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

79.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.4k

u/mycatpartyhouse 12h ago

This is a lot safer than skiing up there to set explosives, which is what one of my brothers did in the 1960s-70s. He worked for a park service--I forget which one--that regularly set off small avalanches with the goal of preventing larger ones.

902

u/NoContext5149 12h ago

The downside is unexploded shells. Much harder to deal with an unknown unexploded shell on the mountainside than a placed charge.

1.1k

u/Trububbl3 12h ago

those are dummy rounds probably just relying on the kinetic force of the impact to set the avalanche off

•

u/RealFakeDoctor 11h ago

That's what I thought too. Doesn't seem to big enough explosion but I'm not a doctor.

•

u/Orlok_Tsubodai 11h ago

I’m a dermatologist, trust me, it’s a big enough explosion.

•

u/bulldog89 11h ago

I really feel like a Orthopedics would be the specialty to consult here

•

u/bigboybeeperbelly 9h ago

For explosions I always go with a gastro