Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
SNOW, AN INTRIGUING, COMPLEX AND CHANGEABLE SOLID
2.1: From ice to snow
2.2: Snow crystals
2.3: From snowfalls to snow layers
2.4: Snow as a granular medium
2.5: Snow as a porous medium: the concept of percolation
BASICS OF DEFORMATION, FRACTURE AND FRICTION PROCESSES
3.1: Deformation of solids
3.2: Fracture initiation and extension
3.3: Griffith's criterion
3.4: The brittle to ductile transition
3.5: Coulomb's law of friction
SLAB AVALANCHE RELEASE: DATA AND FIELD EXPERIMENTS
4.1: Geometry and dynamical characteristics
4.2: Statistical aspects: scale invariance
4.3: The weak layer, starting point for slab avalanche release
4.4: Stability and Bridging indexes
SLAB AVALANCHE MODELING
5.1: Old myths and beliefs to shoot down
5.2: Basis for modeling
5.3: Statistical approach: Playing with cellular
5.4: Sliding or sticking?
5.5: Slab avalanche release in four steps
SUPERFICIAL AND FULL-DEPTH AVALANCHES
6.1: Loose snow avalanches
6.2: Full depth avalanches
6.3: Summary
SNOW AND AVALANCHES IN A CLIMATE WARMING CONTEXT
7.1: Climate change
7.2: Possible consequences on avalanching
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A
COMPLEXITY AND CRITICAL PHENOMENA
A1: From simple to complex systems
A2: Scale invariance and self-organized criticality
APPENDIX B
MODELING A FLUID TO SOLID PHASE TRANSITION IN SNOW WEAK-LAYERS.
B1: A fluid to solid phase transition in healable granular materials
B2: Application to slab avalanche release
APPENDIX C
STABILITY OF A SINTERED WEAK LAYER DISK SURROUNDED BY A RING-SHAPED FLUID WEAK LAYER ZONE

About the Author

François Louchet received an engineering degree at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines (Nancy, France), the "Agrégation" degree in Physics, and a PhD in Solid State Physics. For more than 30 years he has been Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at Grenoble University (Grenoble Institute of Technology). He was also Invited Professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), invited scientist at the Balseiro
Institute, Bariloche (Argentina), and at Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic), Guest Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), OCMR Distinguished Lecturer at Mc Master University, Hamilton, and Kingston University (Ontario,
Canada). He is the secretary of the Data-Avalanche Association, and a member of the European Physical Society and of the French Physical Society. Now retired, he keeps on with his research activity, more particularly on theoretical aspects of instabilities in Physics and Geophysics.

Reviews

Provides the best overall understanding of avalanche science in the most practical way.
*Henry Schniewind, Director of Henry's Avalanche Talk (HAT), London and Val d'Isère*