- Credit
- Grant Helgeson
Loose snow avalanches are avalanches that start from a point on the snow surface, gather mass progressively in a fan-like shape, and are composed of snow that lacks cohesion.
They differ from slab avalanches in that they do not have a fracture line or release at a failure plane within the snowpack. Instead, they are usually confined to surface layers and have relatively narrow propagation. In very steep terrain, loose snow avalanches are more prevalent than slab avalanches.
Loose snow avalanches are described as loose wet or loose dry avalanches depending on whether they are composed of wet or moist snow, or dry snow.
Small loose snow avalanches are often referred to as sluffs. Since loose snow avalanches start from a point and fan out, they are also called point releases.