What causes avalanches and how can you survive them? A physicist explains after the Palisades Tahoe disaster

Nathalie Vriend is an associate professor of thermo fluid sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

An avalanche swept up skiers at Lake Tahoe's largest ski resort on Jan. 10, 2024, as a 150-foot-wide sheet of snow slid down a mountain slope into a pile 10 feet deep. One person died in the avalanche and three others were rescued, according to the Placer County Sheriff's Office in Auburn, California. The slide happened in steep terrain near the KT-22 chairlift, which had just opened for the season that morning.