The initial state of stress in fallen snow is calculated by considering incremental gravity loading of the accreting snow slab. It is then postulated that slab avalanche release is initiated by a reduction of shear strength on a critical layer to a value below that of the existing shearing stress. The manner of top tensile failure, side shear failure, and either buckling or shear compression failure at the lower end of the slab is then described. These results provide avalanche dimensions that are lower bounds on those occurring naturally.
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Brown et al. (1972) studied this question.
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