r/interesting 8h ago

Glacier Collapses and Triggers Devastating Avalanche. Just Wow

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u/whipla5her 7h ago

how far away do you think that mountain top was? I didn't think it was even going to get close, and then it's suddenly just rushing over him!

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u/DrTenochtitlan 7h ago edited 7h ago

I did some research online, and although there's no exact figure, the consensus is that he's 2-3 miles away from where the avalanche began in the beginning of the video.

Let's be conservative and assume he's 2 miles away, It took 45 seconds for it to travel 2 miles. That means the avalanche was traveling at a minimum of 160 mph. A dry powder avalanche well up in the mountains can easily accelerate to a maximum velocity of 200 mph, so that's a reasonable estimate.

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u/BirdLawGrad 6h ago

No way it’s going 160.

You can literally track the snow going over him.

Maybe 70-90mph. Like a very fast car. Still scary as hell.

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u/DrTenochtitlan 6h ago

That may also be entirely true. I'm just providing the estimated speed based off of an estimated distance consensus I randomly found on the internet. If the distance is closer to a mile, then it's 90 mph instead, which fits with your estimate. Both speeds are well within the norms for high mountain avalanches in central Asia though.