| OCR Text |
Show In the opinion of the authors, every person wishing to seriously study snow avalanches should acquaint himself with the fundamentals of the physics of snow before attempting to forecast the onset of an avalanche. The main aspects of this problem are given in a sufficiently comprehensive form. All the same the book is not free of shortcomings: for instance, dealing with the classification of avalanches, the authors subdivide them into only types of snow which the avalanches consist of. The classification doesn't take into account the morphology of the lengthwise profile of the path of avalanches and the types of avalanche formation, on the basis of which are determined the parameters for calculation and selection of anti-avalanche structures. Such a classification is used in the operative work of avalanche service, however, it suffers an essential shortcoming when it is used by prospectors and engineers, since the selection of the type of anti-avalanche structure depfiods not as much on the condition of the snow as on the character of the movement of the avalanche, its mass and the angle with which it strikes the structure. The parameters referred to are connected to the morphology of avalanche formation and for this reason should be taken account of in the classification. The book is published with small abbreviations. So, for example, we cannot recommend the system of observation of the course of meteorological elements proposed in the book ( chapter 6), and because of this, we refer the reader to the system of observation accepted in the U. S. S. R. ( Manual on producing of observations of the Chief Ministry of Hydrometerological Service of the U. S. S. R.). As a whole the book will provide material assistance to the organizing of an avalanche service in the U. S. S. R. and also allows a wide circle of |
