I understand that sun needs to hit a mountain side of snow and that creates a slick surface. But, there must be more to this because that doesn’t sound like it’s ACTUALLY it.
In: Physics
To understand avalanches you need to understand another phenomenon in physics. Any pile of aggregate material, like gravel, has a maximum possible slope. This is simply due to physics if the slope is too steep, gravity acts on the individual particle enough to overcome the friction and have it roll down until friction stops it.
However aggregate materials like snow and sand where the particles are so small, can reach a “super critical state” where the pile can go beyond the maximum natural steepness because the individual particles have some extra force attracting them to one another. In the case of snow, it is the fact that snow flakes have those tiny feathery crystal structures that get tangled.
When this happens it is not stable. Adding enough energy to this super critical area will cause a chain reaction where one particle overcomes friction and adds energy to the next which overcomes friction, so on and so forth. In the case of an avalanche that energy can be as little as a simple echoing yell.
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