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> MSU News
Avalanche research rides wave of popularity
January 05, 2004 -- By Evelyn Boswell, MSU News Service
Fresh from an interview on "Good Morning America," Ed Adams was drinking coffee in Times Square last year when he realized how bizarre his world was and how popular avalanches had become.
As it started to sink in that he had just followed former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and First Lady Laura Bush on national television, people began pointing at him. Then they came over to ask him about avalanches and his life as a snow scientist.
"It was a little bit surreal," commented Adams, whose avalanche work was featured in 2003 in National Geographic Adventure Magazine and "Nature Tech," a program on the History Channel. Adams is also featured in the Jan. 12, 2004 edition of "People" magazine. The article titled "Working Stiff: A Snow Job" is located on page 86 with his photo.
Adams, an associate professor in civil engineering at Montana State University-Bozeman, can understand an affection for snow. He was an English graduate, after all, who took up backcountry skiing and returned to school to begin researching avalanches. Yet he is still mystified about the attraction that avalanches hold for others.
"I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people are into the wilderness and backcountry," he theorized. "Not quite the ‛X Games,' but I think people are just more interested in the whole outdoor adventure sport thing."
"The other side of it from a more practical standpoint is that people are building houses and roads closer and closer to the hazard," he added "People are moving into avalanche terrain."
People may also have a growing interest in science because of the television shows that celebrate it. Avalanches – just looking at the science behind them – are complicated and interesting, Adams said. Then there's the fact that North America had 58 fatalities from avalanches in 2002/2003, 30 of those in the United States.
And don't forget the drama of a snow tsunami.
"I think people find avalanches exciting," Adams said. "It's a big dynamic natural force. You are dealing with several levels of hazard beyond the avalanche, including explosives and unpredictability. That sort of thing."
Magazine writers and television crews from all over the world have heard about the shed that's bolted to a boulder in the mountains near the Bridger Bowl ski area. They come to watch Adams and his team set off a bomb and, from inside the shed, monitor the avalanche that flows around them. Then, there's the indoor laboratory – officially known as the Cold Regions Lab – where MSU's cold weather scientists use CT scans and other sophisticated tools to study snow and ice crystals in a temperature-controlled environment.
Adams looks at avalanches from an engineering angle. MSU also has earth scientists, ecologists and mathematicians who see avalanches with different eyes. These varied approaches have led to projects and collaborations both within and outside of MSU. One uniting goal has been the desire to predict avalanches more accurately.
"Snow can change quickly – by the minute – and we want to understand better how to analyze characteristics of weakening that occur in snowpack," Kathy Hansen said when it was announced that she and Karl Birkeland were heading a two-year study to look at the stability of layers in southwest Montana and other western states. Hansen is a professor in earth sciences. Birkeland is an adjunct professor at MSU and avalanche scientist with the U.S. Forest Service National Avalanche Center in Bozeman.
International collaborations are being promoted through a five-year agreement signed by Adams, MSU's Western Transportation Institute (WTI) and research institutes in Switzerland and Japan. The agreement took effect in June.
"Severe weather conditions and natural hazards affect our civilization in many ways," the agreement stated. "... A call for an international effort to mitigate the effects of natural hazards and severe weather is warranted."
Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or evelynb@montana.edu
Hi-Resolution Image or PDF Available:
| [View or Download] | 1. | Although the team's fieldwork in the Bridger Mountains captures media attention, much of Ed Adams' work takes place in an indoor lab at MSU. Photo by Jeannine Lintner. |
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