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
There are different kinds of avalanches
But generally spoken snow has different layers. The deeper layers are compressed, really hard snow/ice. If this type of snow is exposed to heat, from the ground or the sun, it gets really, really slippery. It’s why Ice is so slippery when you step on it.
Ice at very cold temperatures isn’t slippery even when walking on it. But if you step on it, and it’s warm enough so your weight is enough to melt the upper layer of the ice, it’s super slippery.
That’s by the way the principle of ice skates, because all your weight rests on those narrow skids, which causes the ice under the skids to melt which provides a slippery sliding layer between metal and ice.
The same happens with the compressed snow/ice in avalanches. The layers of snow lying on a compressed layer that’s now super slippery looses grip and starts moving. Once snow is moving snow causes more snow to do the same.
If a skier causes an avalanche, it’s usually because everytime it snows, a different layer of snow results. They don’t grip on each other that good, so a skier shatters the weak connection between the layers and kicks of an avalanche.
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