Avalanche

This video contains exciting footage that makes it one of the Discovery Channel's most popular films in its Raging Planet series. Watch as avalanches slide into action, spreading their doom once snow-packed areas begin to shift. Listen and learn how avalanche controllers can use a cannon to purposely trigger certain snow slides in an effort to prevent uncontrolled avalanches. Viewers will be fascinated to watch as some avalanche controllers even climb aboard helicopters and then drop explosives on unstable snowpacks in an effort to protect both humans and the surrounding environment. As some footage shows, an avalanche rushing down a mountain can snap full-grown trees in two, as though they are mere matchsticks.