Explosives are an effective and widely adopted tool in numerous public and industrial avalanche safety programs around the world. Explosives act as a large trigger that can be placed in a precise location without exposing workers to avalanche hazards. They are used to remove snow from slopes before it can build up enough to create very large avalanches.
Avalanche occurrences, whether natural or artificial, offer observers high quality information about local avalanche problems. For this reason explosive-triggered avalanches figure prominently in public avalanche forecasts.
Photo: A large avalanche is triggered using explosives. From the Canadian Avalanche Association
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