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| Mon Apr 28 19:00:21 2008 Metastability at Baker |
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| Mon Apr 28 19:00:21 2008 Metastability at Baker Cool avalanche patterns. |
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| I spent last Saturday on the slopes at
Mount Baker. A beautiful day! I don't think there was a single cloud in the sky. I ended up with
a mild sunburn on my face.
Still, it was worth it. It was my last day for the season (Baker shut down on Sunday). I spent most of my time on Chair 8, a perennial favorite due to the terrain and sun exposure. To the left (south) of the chair is the backcountry, out of bounds but accessible for those with proper gear (particularly shovels and avalanche beacons). Being a geek, I couldn't help but appreciate some of the avalanche patterns. The photo on the right captures some of the backcountry on Shuksan Arm, near the top of Chair 8. You can see tracks where a couple of skiers started at the top left, came down the cliffs, and then traversed the top of the bowl. If you look at the top track in the bowl, in the middle left of the photo you can see where small avalanches were started by the traversal. These have a triangular shape. It looks like the skier dislodged a small chunk of snow, which tumbled down and dislodged more snow in an expanding slide, until a large (triangular) section of the bowl had slid. That means most of the snowpack was sitting there, ready for any disturbance to cause it to slide down. Obviously, it is a sign of avalanche danger. But that is also the classic definition of a metastable state. The whole system (the entire slope) was stable, but barely. Any slight interaction would cause it to collapse. This sort of behavior is what leads to supercooling, and of course avalanches. Lightning is also a form of metastability. [Aside: I created my first wiki page! The Metastable State page redirected a couple of times, and context was lost in the process. I felt the general concept was worthy of a dedicated page. We'll see if it survives the harsh environment of seasoned physical science wikipedia authors.] Comments |
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